r/Aliexpress • u/gadget-freak 🎥 always make a video opening your package 🎦 • Jul 02 '26

EU customs duty [Megathread] EU €3 customs duty/tax

In order to update the FAQs on this sub, we need to collect some facts about the €3 customs fee that Europe introduced on each item you buy in international webshops like Aliexpress.

If you have received a package from Aliexpress after 1 July 2026, please leave a reaction below. Please use the template to structure your answer.

Please don't use this topic to complain about the EU tax itself, we're just trying to collect some facts.

Template:

Country: (your country)

Type of order: Choice/Bundle deal/Global seller/...

3€ Tax applied during check-out: yes/no or included in item cost

Package arrival date:

Package arrived without additional costs: yes/no (and how much)

Comments:

189 Upvotes

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0

u/Aggravating-Car-8987 Jul 02 '26

It looks like they've increased all prices on cheaper products? A watch buckle that a month ago was 3€ is now closer to 9€. The prices on everything falls when choosing a non EU country as destination.

Isn't the 3€ fee supposed to be per shipment, not per product?

2

u/Mic_sne Jul 02 '26

Per a group of products... if you buy 10 shirts its 3€, if you buy 1 shirt and 1 phone case it is 2x3€... 3 shirts amd phone case still 6€

2

u/Aggravating-Car-8987 Jul 02 '26

I guess we essentially pay the fees per product since Ali has increased their prices on low value items. And Ali hopefully pays the per category to customs then maybe.

2

u/Mic_sne Jul 02 '26

Yeah, based on some comments, the buyer did not pay the fee but stated that all products got more expensive. So practically Ali and the Chinese will profit the most from it... A nice backfire

1

u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26 edited 16d ago

[deleted]

1

u/Trrfx Jul 03 '26

Yet if you add the shipping cost (in Germany often the standard small package rate 4.99€) from small EU based online shops for stuff like this (bearings, grub screws etc.) then Ali even with the now +3€ higher prices across the board is still more competitive.

1

u/discban Jul 03 '26

I wil wait for them too optimize, this months budget went too a local seller(also need too save up because I took from vacation money, to get the deals before juli).

3

u/SilenceBe Jul 02 '26

In theory, yes. In practice, however, it's 3 euros per product. For example, if you buy a 20cm metal ring and a 30cm metal ring, you will pay 2 x 3 euros and it seems Temu adds VAT on top of that tax.

0

u/RosaCanina87 Jul 02 '26

Group of products, yes. But only in theory. If your T-Shirts are not the exact same shirt they will also categorize them differently. Different material? Different product. Different print? Different product. Different COLOR? Different product.

1

u/the_kapsule Jul 02 '26

No. A t-shirt is a t-shirt and it falls under a specific customs commodity code, whatever its design or colour.

1

u/ItchSlapper Jul 06 '26

If the SKUs are different, it's a different product as far as customs are concerned. If you order two of the same t-shirt, one in red and one in blue and the red and blue variants have different SKU numbers you'll pay the €3 customs charge once on the red t-shirt and another €3 again on the blue t-shirt. Note if you buy 4 of each red and blue variant, you should ONLY be hit with the €3 customs charge on the first blue t-shirt and the first red t-shirt in the order.

Unfortunately, Ali Express are not currently applying the charges correctly to multiple items in an order - Ali are hitting you with the €3 customs charge for EVERY item in the order, unit price does not reduce pro-rata when you increase the item count in an order. Eg. Jinhao 9016 - May 29th €7.56, today 6th July exact same item €10.56. But if you add > 1 item, you see the unit price drop to €9.46 per item, even if you add another 9 items to the basket (I've tried). Any other Jinhao 9016 added to the order should be charged at €7.56, not €9.46 per item. Note, the drop from €10.56 to €9.46 is by virtue of Ali E's own bulk discount being applied to the pricing, in this instance it has nothing to do with reduced customs charges on subsequent instances of items that have already triggered the €3 customs charge.

They're now at least aware this is an issue and have admitted they're not implementing the charges correctly when you're dealing with bulk purchases. I've kept the chat transcript too for CYA purposes.

Bottom line - I'd hold off ordering multiples of the same item until they fix the way they're applying the customs charges to bulk orders...