150-Euro Customs Exemption Abolished: Why Multi-Item Orders Eat Margins

Since July 1, 2026, the customs exemption under the Customs Relief Regulation (VO (EG) 1186/2009) for shipments under 150 euros is history, replaced by a flat customs duty of 3 euros. The 150-euro customs exemption is gone, fundamentally changing the calculation basis for direct e-commerce imports from third countries. According to a report by etailment on August 18, 2026, this new regulation has already led to a 30 to 40 percent decline in low-cost shipments from third countries. However, the decisive lever for merchant margins lies in a technical detail of the implementation: the 3 euros are not levied as a flat rate per package, but for every single customs tariff code declared in a shipment.

Why the flat customs duty destroys unit contribution margins in multi-item orders

The flat customs duty is due per customs tariff code, which massively burdens the margin per unit for orders containing different types of items. If a customer orders a t-shirt, sunglasses, and a phone case from a third country, three different customs tariff codes apply to this single package. This results in 9 euros in customs fees for a single small shipment under 150 euros. With an average shopping cart value of, for example, 40 euros, the unit contribution margin is massively burdened or slips completely into the negative.

Merchants who have historically optimized their assortment for cross-selling and broad shopping carts in the low-price segment are losing money on every one of these multi-item orders. The previous calculation logic, where freight and handling costs scaled positively with the number of items in the package, no longer works under the new customs structure. Every additional item from a different product category brings its own 3 euros in fixed costs. This forces e-commerce companies to evaluate profitability no longer at the shopping cart level, but strictly at the level of the combination of customs tariff codes.

Why averages in e-commerce controlling are now misleading

Those who continue to distribute customs and freight costs only as a percentage markup across the entire assortment are subsidizing unprofitable small parts with the margins of bestsellers. A flat markup of, for example, five percent for import costs completely obscures the actual burden of the new flat customs duty. A 10-euro item that is the sole representative of its customs tariff code in the package incurs 3 euros in customs – representing a 30 percent cost burden. A 100-euro item also incurs 3 euros, which corresponds to only 3 percent.

If controlling does not allocate these costs sharply, the system reports apparent profitability at an aggregated level, while the company is burning money on certain item combinations. Margin losses remain invisible in the classic profit and loss statement until liquidity at the end of the month no longer matches the reported revenues. Excel islands, where logistics costs are spread evenly over sold units at the end of the month, are an incalculable risk to solvency under these legal frameworks.

How precise business monitoring allocates costs at the SKU level

A functioning system merges raw data from imports, platforms, and shipping, breaking costs down to the individual invoice line. To manage the impact of the flat customs duty, cost modeling is mandatory, allocating shipping, commission, platform, storage, and customs costs versioned and per channel, category, and country. The system imports the data end-to-end from a single source, assigns the fees exactly to the causing customs tariff code and the SKU (Stock Keeping Unit), and transfers them to a continuous P&L cascade.

Every metric must remain traceable back to the source: from the source field via the mapping and the tariff to the final formula. The result is auditable instead of a black box. Such business monitoring scales even with millions of invoice lines and enables a month-end close that shows the actual unit contribution margins. Only when the database is built this granularly can a reliable 13- to 52-week liquidity forecast be created that realistically reflects the new customs burdens.

What steps managing directors must take now to secure margins

The assortment must urgently be checked for items whose unit contribution margin can no longer bear the 3 euros flat customs duty per customs tariff code, in order to remove them from direct third-country shipping. Once the database is cleaned up at the SKU level and the true costs are visible, operational decisions are pending. Low-value items with their own customs tariff code must either be drastically increased in price or removed from the assortment if they are imported directly to the end customer.

In addition, marketing requires a shift in direction: campaigns must be optimized for single-variety shopping carts or bundles of the same customs tariff code to spread the 3 euros across multiple items. Finally, the lifting of the exemption under VO (EG) 1186/2009 forces a reassessment of procurement logistics. It must be calculated precisely whether the classic import in bulk shipments with subsequent local storage and customs clearance in the EU is now cheaper than the previous dropshipping model. Without a granular database that calculates these scenarios at the document level, such strategic decisions are pure blind flight.