Jersey Post - EU Changes impacting Business

Background

Following the changes to US import tariffs last year, many other countries have been reviewing the traditional postal customs clearance processes with a view to converging them closer to commercial clearance processes. The EU are making significant changes which affect parcels being sent to the EU from 1 July. The process for implementing these has been extremely vague creating significant uncertainty and confusion across the global postal industry over the last couple of months. There was no technical solution available for these changes and EU countries are at different stages of readiness.

Changes

• From 1 July 2026, the €150 de-minimus for parcels entering the EU is being withdrawn
• From that date all B2C and all C2C parcels (except gifts under €45), will need to pay the duty and taxes local to the destination country
• In addition, from that date, a flat customs duty of €3 will apply to all Business to Consumer (B2C) items under €150 entering the EU.
• It will apply per item classification. If a single parcel contains multiple different types of items, the duty can add up. In addition, some EU countries may levy a handling fee which will vary by destination. This will have wide ranging implications for all non-EU sellers, Postal services, marketplaces, and logistics providers.
• The Council of the European Union have advised the €3 duty will apply to all B2C goods under €150, including those sold by non-EU sellers registered under the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for VAT purposes.
• Further changes are likely to come into effect from November 2026.

Impact

• This will add complexity to the process of sending parcels to EU destinations, particularly for consumers and small business customers buying services from our retail network as additional information such as HS codes will need to be provided.
• It will also increase costs as the ultimate intention is that both duties, taxes and handling fees will be paid by the sender, however, the methods for doing this are immature at an industry level.  It is our current understanding that from 1^st July until 1^st November 2026, the majority of popular destination countries will collect the duties and handling fees from the recipient unless the seller is registered under the Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for VAT purposes, in which case collection from recipient is not possible.

Response

• There is currently no clear industry-wide technical solution available to be able to take the customs duty fee upfront. We have been working at pace with partners in the industry and with technical providers to ensure we have a technical solution in place in order to charge duties upfront (Postal Delivered Duty Paid solution) for our larger export business customers. We were hoping to have this in place by 1 July however this will only be ready by mid to end July due to the complexity of the situation and development work required.
• Some countries will accept payment on delivery from IOSS customers. 8 counties won’t accept this, therefore we are suspending the sending of parcels to the following EU countries until our Postal Delivered Duty Paid / PDDP solution is in place.
  • Germany
  • Denmark
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Finland
  • France
  • Luxembourg
  • Portugal
• For retail and business account customers, from 1 July, duties and taxes will be collected on delivery to the recipient by most receiving postal operators, with the exception of Austria and Denmark and Germany (will accept payment on delivery until 31 August only). As a result we have suspended the sending of goods to these countries until there is a technical solution in place to charge duties upfront. Gifts under EUR 45 and documents can still be sent to these destinations as usual.
• From November 2026 further EU changes will come into effect, requiring us to charge duties and fees up front before sending an item.
• We will be working between now and 1^st Nov to adapt the customer process for our retail network customers, which should be achievable provided the EU provide sufficient clarity and consistency early enough.
• We published news about these changes at the start of June and have kept our business customers informed as things have evolved.
• The Consumer Council will be publishing information about the EU changes in their JEP article on Friday.

For businesses needing to mail business items to Europe, they should direct enquiries to Jersey Post business mailbox business@jerseypost.com where their business development team will be happy to assist.

For more updates check Jersey Post Service Updates.