In brief
- Both de minimis exemptions are gone. The United States suspended duty free entry below $800 for every country as of 29 August 2025, a suspension continued on 20 February 2026 and then re-grounded on 24 June 2026 on independent statutory authority. The Union removed the exemption below €150 on 1 July 2026, replacing it with a transitional flat duty of €3 per item.
- The real question is not the amount, it is who pays it and when: built into the price at checkout, or claimed from the customer by the carrier on delivery, with a handling fee on top.
- A parcel paid for on delivery is the worst experience in e-commerce: surprise, hold, refusal, return. The commercial cost almost always exceeds the duty itself.
- The decision is called DDP or DAP, duties paid by the sender or by the recipient, and it is taken market by market, not left to the carrier’s default.
For years, the small international parcel lived in a customs blind spot: below €150 into Europe, below $800 into the United States, nothing to pay and almost nothing to declare. That blind spot closed on both sides of the Atlantic in under a year. If you sell beyond your own borders, every order now raises a question that your checkout is already answering, whether you decided it or not.
What changed, exactly
| Direction | Before | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Into the United States | De minimis exemption below $800: almost all e-commerce came in without duties | Suspended for every country since 29 August 2025: duties and formalities apply from the first dollar. The Supreme Court’s ruling of 20 February 2026, Learning Resources v. Trump, struck down IEEPA-based tariffs without disturbing that suspension, which was continued the same day and then re-grounded on 24 June 2026 in two US Customs rules resting on independent statutory authority. For postal shipments, a compliance deadline falls on 22 October 2026 |
| Into the European Union | Exemption below €150 | Removed on 1 July 2026 and replaced by a transitional flat duty of €3 per item, expected to run until July 2028, with a review clause on 1 December 2027 that could extend it |
| The background | Around 4.6 billion low-value items entered the Union in 2024, and roughly 91% of shipments came from China: the reform targets that flow, and takes everyone else with it | |
Note the asymmetry: for a seller based in the Union, the direction that hurts is export, with the United States and the United Kingdom at the top of the list. The import direction changes something else, your competitive environment: sellers outside the Union who flooded the market below the threshold now pay too. For a European brand, that is rather good news.
DDP or DAP: the decision, and what follows from it
Two regimes decide who pays. Under DAP, Delivered At Place, you ship and the recipient pays the customs duties, the local VAT and the carrier’s handling fee on arrival. Under DDP, Delivered Duty Paid, you collect everything at checkout and the parcel arrives with no surprise.
DAP is the de facto default when nobody decides, and it is the worst of the silent choices: the customer discovers an extra payment, often inflated by a fixed handling fee that can exceed the duty itself on a small basket, at the very moment they were expecting their parcel. Some refuse it, and the parcel makes the return journey at your expense. It is the same mechanism as delivery costs discovered at the payment step, only worse: the surprise lands after the purchase, with a customer who had already trusted you.
The mistake that costs the most Leaving the regime to the carrier’s default without saying so on the site. The American customer who discovers customs and handling fees, sometimes very high, added at the moment of delivery does not think “that is customs”, they think “this shop set me up”. The review that follows says so in public. If you stay on DAP, announcing it clearly in the checkout is not an optional piece of transparency, it is what separates a condition of sale from a dispute.
The method, market by market
- Pull out your ten export destinations and their average basket values. The DDP or DAP decision is taken market by market: the right choice for the United States is not necessarily the right one for Switzerland or the United Kingdom.
- Work out the real landed cost for each market: customs duties according to the product category, local VAT, carrier fees for collecting them. On your actual average baskets, not in the abstract.
- Decide, then display. DDP: an all inclusive landed price, a selling point in itself. DAP owned openly: a clear warning on the product page and in the checkout, before payment. The middle ground, saying nothing, is the only choice that always loses.
- Check your product data. The tariff classification and origin of every reference determine the duties; these are the same structured fields already required by product safety rules and by marketplaces. The work can be shared.
- Redo your export margin calculation. A market that was profitable under the de minimis exemption may not be any more: it is one more line in your margin by channel calculation, just as returns were before it.
A fifteen minute self check: place a test order to your leading export market, or simply read what your checkout promises an American customer today. If neither the price nor a warning mentions customs duties, your customers are finding the answer for you, one parcel at a time.
The options, and what each is worth
| Approach | What it gives you | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|
| DDP on key markets | A landed price with no surprise: better conversion, fewer refusals, an argument against competitors who stayed vague. Requires a calculation by category and a carrier that can keep up | Strategic export markets, mid and high baskets |
| DAP announced clearly | Simple to run and honest, but it leaves the friction with the customer: workable on high baskets and with experienced buyers | Secondary markets, B2B |
| Cutting unprofitable destinations | A legitimate decision once the numbers are in: better to close a market than to lose money on every order or disappoint on every delivery | Small baskets to destinations with heavy fixed fees |
| Changing nothing | The default regime decides for you, the customer pays the surprise, and the reviews tell the rest of the story | No case at all |
The tooling
On PrestaShop, we deploy for our clients the module published by Datafirefly Limited, our agency’s sister company: DDP / DAP Customs Duties calculates and displays import duties and taxes in the checkout for destinations outside the Union, both under DDP and as a DAP warning. One-off purchase · 12 months of updates.
The method matters more than the tool: the module runs the regime you chose, it does not choose it. The landed cost calculation for each market, the DDP or DAP decision and the tariff classification data on every product come first, and they are what decide whether an export market deserves to exist.
The bigger picture
The end of the de minimis exemptions closes a decade in which the small international parcel looked free because nobody was counting it. What comes back is not only a cost, it is a demand for honesty about the landed price: brands that show the full figure turn a constraint into an argument, while those who leave the surprise to the carrier pay in trust what they save in calculation.
This is a commercial policy decision taken market by market, exactly the kind of trade-off we work through in our e-commerce and marketplaces expertise: the channels and the countries that deserve the effort, numbers in hand, rather than being present everywhere by default.
Sources
The verifiable claims in this article link to their primary source, accessed on 12 August 2026. We do not cite a source we have not read.
- Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382 of 11 February 2026 amending Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009 as regards the elimination of the threshold-based customs duty relief, Articles 1 to 4. Open
- Federal Register, 24 June 2026, document 2026-12669, postal shipments, 19 CFR 145.12 and 145.31, compliance date of 22 October 2026. Open
- Federal Register, 24 June 2026, document 2026-12670, all other modes of transport, 19 CFR 10.151. Open
- European Commission, communication COM(2025) 37 final, A comprehensive EU toolbox for safe and sustainable e-commerce, 5 February 2025: 4.6 billion low-value items imported in 2024, with 91 % of shipments up to 150 euros. Read
FAQ
Does the €3 European flat duty concern me as a seller based in the Union?
Not on your sales inside the Union, which cross no customs border. It applies to your imports of goods from outside the Union, and above all to your competitors shipping directly from Asia: their structural advantage narrowed on 1 July 2026.
Is DDP complicated to set up?
It needs three things: the tariff classification of your products, a duty and tax calculation at checkout, and a carrier or intermediary that pays the money over. It is a project, not a tick box, and it can be tested on a single market before being extended.
What happens if a customer refuses a DAP parcel?
The parcel comes back at your expense, return transport and sometimes handling fees included, and the customer waits for a refund. That is the scenario that makes silent DAP so expensive: every refusal adds up an outbound leg, a return leg and a lost customer.
Can these rules still change?
Yes. The European flat duty is explicitly transitional until the permanent system arrives, and the American regime has already moved in stages. These are exactly the sort of dates we track in our compliance calendar, updated whenever the texts move.
Can Dotsland help me with this?
Yes. Landed cost calculation for each market, the DDP or DAP decision destination by destination, implementation in the checkout and a rebuilt export margin calculation. It is one of the projects under our e-commerce and marketplaces expertise. Let’s talk, or start by reading what your checkout promises an American customer today.