Custom levy on cheap online imports comes into effect from 1 July | Yle News

Finnish Customs will slap a new flat rate 3-euro levy on low-cost goods ordered by private individuals from outside the EU, starting from Wednesday 1 July. The fee is aimed in particular at products ordered from online retailers such as Temu and Shein, as the number of low-cost shipments arriving in Finland from outside the EU swelled to over 50 million last year — a dramatic year-on-year increase of 69 percent driven by cheap parcels coming from China. The changes form part of a broader EU reform aimed at addressing the sharp rise in low-cost imports and their impact on consumers and the environment. In 2022, about 1.4 billion low-cost items were sent to the EU, in 2025 this figure stood at 5.8 billion. Changes mainly affect retailers The levy will be primarily paid by the retailer using the EU’s Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS) for value-added tax (VAT), so the fee should be visible to the customer at the checkout stage. The cost may be reflected in higher prices, however. The new fee will also have to be paid on products ordered before Wednesday, as the levy is determined according to the arrival date, not the order date. Open image viewer The vast majority of the packages arriving in Finland from outside the EU originate in China. File photo. Image: AOP It will be charged for each customs declaration item rather than per package. Goods with the same customs code and country of origin can be grouped together. "For example, if a shipment contains three shirts and dozens of pairs of socks, the shirts would be declared as one item and the socks as another, meaning the customs fee would total six euros," Senior Customs Inspector Antti Hästbacka explained in a press release. However, because the items in a consignment are based on tariff codes, customers could be in for some surprising situations. For example, a cotton t-shirt and a button-up shirt are different consignment items from the perspective of Finnish Customs — meaning both shirts would be subject to a 3-euro fee. In addition, if a customer orders five baseball caps and the online store sends each in its own package, the customs fee must be paid five times.