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Business, Economy, Euro
Taxation and Customs Union

Goods bought online

Customs handle the huge and ever-increasing number of goods bought online and imported directly to consumers into the EU. It is part of customs function to oversee the additional risks brought by e-commerce to EU citizens and businesses.

Ever increasing share of customs activity 

A huge share of imports handled by customs are goods bought online and directly imported to consumers into the EU in small packages of less than 150 EUR  ( the so-called ‘e-commerce low value consignments (LVC)’). Over the last two years, the volume of these e-commerce parcels  has doubled each year, to reach an estimate of 4.6 billion e-commerce items in 2024. In July 2025, an increase of 36% was already observed compared to July 2024.

Evolution of the total number of import declarations, showing the surge in ‘low value consignments (LVC)) compared to the volume of more traditional trade (with value per item > EUR 150) (EU27, billion items and share of total imported items (%), 2020-2025S1, semesters).  

Bar and line chart showing low-value consignments (LVC) in total imports from S1 2022 to S1 2025. Dark blue bars indicate LVC items rising from 0.66 to 2.77 billion, while light blue bars show other declarations remaining stable around 0.07–0.08 billion. A yellow line shows the share of LVC increasing from about 91% to 97%.
DG Taxud – Surveillance database

Most goods bought online carry very low price tags

Infographic comparing the number and value of imported items in the EU between low-value consignments (LVC) and non-LVC in the first semester of 2025, highlighting a strong contrast between volume and value.
EU Surveillance database and CUP

Low value consignments (mainly online goods deliveries from abroad) account for the lion’s share of imports in terms of parcels (around 97% of), but amount to only around 1.8% of total import value, as the average price in this segment is less than 9 €. 

Most e-commerce products are exported from China

Pourcentage of products imported by country

Products by CN code

A challenge for customs

The communication "A comprehensive EU toolbox for safe and sustainable e-commerce", published in February 2025, recognises the risks and challenges to customs and discusses possible measures to make customs and market surveillance authorities more resilient and effective, in particular through an advanced implementation of the Customs Union Reform, as well as through other measures (a possible non-discriminatory handling fee for imported goods delivered directly to consumers).