A new regulation for e-commerce shipments from non-European actors will be implemented at the turn of the year 2026. For packages with a value of up to 150 euros, a customs duty equivalent to a maximum of 3 euros per item will be charged. The purpose from the EU's side is to level the playing field between European traders and companies outside the union, as well as to ensure that imported products meet established safety requirements.
Ahead of the change, Tullverket (Swedish Customs Agency), via the research company Novus, has mapped consumers' attitude towards the fee. According to the survey, 23 percent state that a customs duty would make them refrain from purchases. An additional 31 percent state that it would make them often refrain from orders.
The new customs rules will represent a major change for the non-European websites that sell these products, but also for the consumers who have become accustomed to being able to buy cheap goods without a customs duty being added. We therefore wanted to find out how Swedish consumers view the change in regulations and whether their purchasing patterns will change, says Carina Asplund, head of Tullverkets uppbördsavdelning (Collection Department).
When the fee in the measurement is specified to 3 euros, 41 percent state that the cost will not affect their purchasing behavior. At the same time, 14 percent state that they will completely stop shopping for goods from outside the EU, and 24 percent that they will shop less often.
One aspect of the new regulation is that the fee is not charged per package, but per individual item in the shipment, which means that the total fee for an order can be higher than 3 euros.
The survey shows that the extra customs duty will affect Swedes' willingness to shop from web platforms outside the EU, but that it is still a surprisingly large proportion who say that a duty of 3 euros per item is affordable. But this can also be explained by the fact that it has not quite gotten across that it is a cost for each item, not the package itself. So if you order several different types of goods at the same time, there will be a customs duty on each individual item, regardless of whether they are in the same package. This could therefore amount to significantly more than 3 euros in customs duties, explains Carina Asplund.