€2 handling charge on imported low-value B2C parcels from large sellers
Austria is proposing a new €2 “Delivery Tax” on e-commerce parcel shipments from October 2026.
This mirrors the EU €2 Customs Handling Fee, due in November 2026. In addition, the EU has agreed a flat €3 Customs Duty levy for July 2026 ahead of the 2028 EU Customs Reform. Other EU countries with €2 customs fees include France and Belgium (on pause).
The proposal is now open to consultation until 26th May 2026.
Austria large sellers burgeoning small parcel imports from China
The draft law would impose a flat €2 charge per parcel delivered in Austria under distance selling rules. Crucially, the tax would be payable by the seller, not the logistics provider or customer.
This comes just months after the European Union confirmed its own €3 customs levy on low-value imports from July 2026, alongside broader reforms removing the €150 customs exemption and tightening customs controls on non-EU ecommerce flows. Austria’s proposal therefore risks becoming part of a wider trend: national governments layering additional domestic charges on top of EU-wide customs reforms.
Austria’s measure is, however, targeted at the very largest online sellers – especialiiy from Chine. The levy would only apply where a business generated more than €100 million in Austrian distance sales revenue during the previous financial year.
A widening tax net on parcel commerce
The proposal adopts a broad definition of distance selling, covering marketplace-facilitated transactions and online sales concluded outside physical stores. Marketplace revenues would still be attributed to the underlying seller for threshold purposes.
The tax becomes due once payment is accepted for the sale, not when delivery is successfully completed. This creates a potentially awkward mismatch for retailers dealing with failed deliveries, cancellations or returns.
Austria also proposes a presumption that delivery occurred unless the seller can prove otherwise, placing the evidential burden squarely on businesses.
For ecommerce platforms, marketplaces and cross-border sellers, the era of frictionless low-value parcel trade into Europe is rapidly coming to an end.
