France proposes to charge "handling fees" on every small package entering Europe

France is proposing to charge "handling fees" on every small package entering Europe from 2026 onwards, to finance controls that will be tightened in the face of the influx of low-value packages from China , government officials said on Tuesday, April 29, at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport.

The idea is to make " importers, platforms, and not consumers, pay a small fixed amount for parcels," declared Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin, referring to "a few euros" per parcel.

"In anticipation of the Customs Union reform in 2028, France will advocate for the rapid establishment at the European level of a handling fee mechanism for each small package entering Europe. The money raised would be used to finance inspections," the minister's office told AFP.

This tax would be applied from 2026 until 2028 , when the European Union could remove the customs tax exemption on parcels worth less than 150 euros, arriving from countries outside the European Union.

More than 145 small parcels every second

Four ministers from the Ministry of Finance, Eric Lombard (economy and finance), Amélie de Montchalin (public accounts), Véronique Louwagie (trade and crafts in particular), and Clara Chappaz (artificial intelligence and digital technology), were on a visit to Roissy airport to discuss "regulation" and "security of e-commerce platforms."

Singapore-based e-commerce platform Shein is under investigation by the European Commission over allegations it is failing to adequately combat the sale of products that do not meet European standards.

The institution has also been investigating the Chinese-origin website Temu since October for similar reasons.

Some 4.6 billion shipments worth less than €150 entered the European market in 2024, or more than 145 every second. Of this total, 91% came from China.

In France alone, 800 million parcels worth less than 150 euros were delivered last year (out of a total of 1.5 billion parcels).