KPMG report: New EU Customs Code enters into force; platforms face new obligations as “importer for distance sales”

The European Union (EU) on September 19, 2026, published Regulation (EU) 2026/2108, establishing the new Union Customs Code (nUCC) and the European Union Customs Authority (EUCA), and repealing the current Union Customs Code (Regulation (EU) No 952/2013).

The nUCC is the most comprehensive reform of the EU customs framework since 1968. For online marketplaces and platforms facilitating cross-border e-commerce, the central change is a new statutory obligation regime applicable to the “importer for distance sales”—the person supplying or facilitating a distance sale of goods imported from outside the EU.

Background

The European Commission (EC) proposed the UCC reform in May 2023 in response to structural pressures facing the EU Customs Union, including the rapid growth of low-value e-commerce imports, the expanding range of safety, environmental, and other regulatory requirements enforced at the border, geopolitical disruptions, fraud, and the fragmentation created by 27 national customs administrations and more than 111 separate national IT systems. According to the EC, approximately 5.9 billion low-value items entered the EU in 2025, illustrating the scale of the supervisory challenge.

The reform is intended to replace the existing declaration-based and nationally fragmented model with a more integrated, data-driven framework. The EC describes the reform as resting on three principal pillars: smarter EU-level risk management and customs controls; a modern framework for e-commerce; and a stronger partnership with compliant businesses. Central to that model are the European Union Customs Authority and the EU Customs Data Hub, which is intended to provide a single data-entry environment, enable information to be submitted once and reused, and give customs authorities a real-time, EU-wide view of supply chains.

For e-commerce, a central policy objective is to shift responsibility away from individual consumers and toward the platforms and sellers that control the transactions and underlying data. Platforms acting as importers will be responsible for customs formalities and for demonstrating compliance with customs, product-safety, and other import requirements.

The reform is being implemented in stages. As an interim measure, effective July 1, 2026, the EU eliminated the customs duty relief previously available for consignments with an intrinsic value not exceeding €150 and introduced a temporary €3 customs duty for qualifying low-value distance sales and postal consignments. The duty is generally calculated for each category of goods, determined by tariff classification, contained in a consignment. These changes did not alter the existing EU VAT rules.

“Importer for distance sales” – definitions and obligations

The nUCC provides that, “in the case of distance sales,” the “importer” is the “importer for distance sales.” An importer for distance sales is defined as “either the person supplying goods in distance sales or the person facilitating distance sales” (i.e., online marketplaces and platforms). Article 5(15) of the nUCC defines "distance sales" by cross-referring to the EU VAT Directive (2006/112/EC), which in turn defines the term as the sale of goods imported from outside the EU and dispatched or transported to a customer within the EU.

As a result, importers for distance sales (i.e., direct sellers or platforms facilitating such sales) have the following obligations:

• Provide or make available to customs authorities, as soon as available and in any event prior to release of the goods, all information required for the relevant customs procedure
• Ensure payment of any customs duties and other applicable charges
• Ensure that goods entering the EU comply with relevant “other legislation applied by the customs authorities” (e.g., product safety, environmental and other non-fiscal EU rules) and keep appropriate compliance records
• Notify customs authorities of suspicious movements or unauthorized handling of goods of which they are aware
• Fulfill any other obligation established by customs legislation

In general, the importer must be established in the EU customs territory, but this requirement is waived for an importer that is “represented by an indirect representative established in the customs territory of the Union.”

With the implementation of the €3 customs duty as of July 1, 2026, the EC also introduced a temporary cascade for determining the declarant, starting with the import one-stop shop (IOSS) holder, which affects platforms using the IOSS mechanism. This is a significant departure from earlier practice, under which platforms routinely relied on the EU consumer to act as the declarant for distance sales from outside the EU. This allocation of responsibility for the import formalities is already broadly aligned with the new concept of importer under the nUCC. The same legislation introduces requirements on product identifiers to be reported in the customs declaration, which become mandatory from November 1, 2026.

For further details, read TaxNewsFlash.

Trust & Check Trader status and the customs warehouse for distance sales

“Trust & Check Trader” (T&C) is a new, higher tier of trusted-trader status created by the nUCC. It builds on the existing Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) program and reflects a broader shift in the reform from a declaration-based system, where customs checks each shipment individually, to a data-based system, where customs continuously monitors a trader’s own systems and intervenes only when risk indicators warrant intervention.

To qualify, a trader must generally meet AEO-equivalent criteria: a clean compliance record, demonstrable control over its operations and supply chain, financial solvency, and appropriate professional standards. In addition, such a trader must operate an electronic system capable of giving customs authorities real-time (or near real-time) access to data on the movement of its goods and its compliance status, ultimately by connecting to the EU Customs Data Hub. For an importer for distance sales specifically, the applicant must have been registered for, and have made appropriate use of, the import one-stop shop (IOSS) VAT compliance mechanism for at least two years before applying.

In return for this higher degree of transparency, T&C traders receive meaningful operational benefits, including:

• Self-release of goods: T&C traders may release their own goods into free circulation without waiting for active customs intervention, provided the required data has been made available in advance and the goods have not been flagged for control.
• Periodic, rather than per-shipment, duty payment: Instead of calculating and paying the customs debt shipment by shipment, T&C traders may self-calculate and report the total customs debt covering all goods released over a period of up to 31 calendar days, easing cash-flow and administrative burdens. The competent authority is the member state where that importer/exporter or its customs representative is established—regardless of where in the EU the goods are actually delivered.
• Access to the customs warehouse for distance sales: This specific facility, which allows goods intended for distance sales to be stored under customs supervision subject to simplified formalities, is available only to importers for distance sales that both use the IOSS mechanism and hold T&C status (or whose indirect representative holds that status).

Platforms that do not use the IOSS mechanism, or have not yet achieved T&C status, do not benefit from these facilitations. They instead fall under the standard release mechanics, which differ depending on the reason. Where the importer for distance sales does not make use of the IOSS mechanism, the competent authority is the customs authority of the member state in which the goods are to be delivered to the consumer. Where an IOSS user has simply not obtained T&C status, the general rule applies instead, and competence rests with the customs authority of the member state in which the goods are located. In either case, absent T&C status, a platform selling into multiple EU member states may need to interact with several national customs authorities separately, rather than clearing centrally through its member state of establishment (or where the representative is established). Given the required two-year IOSS track record, platforms should treat IOSS registration and T&C eligibility planning as an early priority, well ahead of the July 1, 2028, when the T&C facilitations described above actually become applicable, noting that T&C status itself may be applied for from the general application date of September 21, 2027. 

EU-wide handling fee

Separate from the deemed-importer obligations described above and from the temporary flat €3 customs duty on low-value e-commerce consignments already in effect since July 1, 2026, under earlier legislation, the nUCC introduces a permanent EU-wide, non-refundable “Union handling fee.”

Under Article 20(2) of the nUCC, customs authorities “shall collect a Union handling fee of a fixed amount per item for the services to be rendered for handling a request for placing goods under the release for free circulation procedure where those goods are sold in distance sales.” The fee amount must correspond to the approximate cost of the underlying services, including “the costs of checking the data, of carrying out risk analysis, of the relevant infrastructure and of controls, including services rendered by the EU Customs Authority.” Beginning in 2028, a lower fee can apply where the goods are sold in distance sales from a customs warehouse for distance sales, reflecting the lower supervisory burden of bulk storage compared with individually shipped parcels.

The debtor of the handling fee is the debtor of the corresponding customs debt on import (i.e., the importer for distance sales) who must pay the fee at least once a month. The specific fee amount is to be set by a Commission delegated act. According to a letter from the Dutch State Secretary of Finance dated September 22 to Parliament, the EC adopted the delegated act on September 21 regarding the Union’s handling fee and shared it with the Council and the European Parliament. This fee amounts to €2 per product category and will become final after 30 days, provided that neither the Council nor the European Parliament raises any objections. 

The handling fee is therefore expected to be levied from November 1, 2026, on e‑commerce consignments sent from outside the EU to a consumer in the EU, regardless of the value of the consignment. This means that the handling fee will also be charged on products with a value of more than €150.

Penalty regime for systematic non-compliance in distance sales

Article 276 of the nUCC introduces a dedicated, tiered penalty regime specifically targeting systematic non-compliance by economic operators engaged in distance sales:

• First systematic infringement: A pecuniary charge of at least 1% and up to 4% of the total value of goods imported into the EU by the economic operator over the preceding 12 months, together with mandatory suspension, revocation or annulment of any AEO or Trust & Check trader status.
• Further systematic infringement within six months: A pecuniary charge of at least 3% and up to 6% of the same 12-month import value.
• A subsequent (third) systematic infringement within a further six months: The same 3–6% penalty bracket applies, and, depending on the gravity of the infringement, competent authorities may temporarily restrict access to the economic operator’s online interface.

Imposition of a penalty under Article 276 of the nUCC results in the relevant importer for distance sales being classified as a “high-risk economic operator” in the EU Customs Data Hub, a classification that is then factored into EU-wide risk management and the design of common priority control areas and risk criteria. Penalties have until now been left largely to the national legislation of the member states, subject only to the requirement in the current UCC that they be effective, proportionate, and dissuasive. This new penalty regime is an important development in harmonizing administrative practice across the EU.

Under Article 77(5) of the nUCC, a systematic infringement determined under Article 276(5) is a reason to believe that all goods notified for release for free circulation by that operator do not comply, for at least six months. A platform therefore also risks suspension of release across its entire import flow.

EU Customs Authority and EU Customs Data Hub

The Regulation establishes the European Union Customs Authority (EUCA) as a new EU body with legal personality, seated in Lille, France. The EUCA’s governance provisions apply from entry into force, though its substantive risk-management and operational tasks generally become applicable alongside the general September 21, 2027, application date, with the EC able to perform certain EUCA risk-management tasks itself until June 30, 2028. National customs authorities remain responsible for controls, releases, and duty collection, and will remain the day-to-day point of contact for platforms on customs matters, while the EUCA coordinates EU-level risk management and helps establish common priority control areas and risk criteria.

The Regulation also establishes the EU Customs Data Hub, intended to replace the patchwork of national customs IT systems. The Data Hub must be operational by June 1, 2028, and become usable for importers for distance sales and IOSS users from July 1, 2028. The system should be available on a voluntary basis to other importers, exporters, and holders of the transit procedure from March 1, 2031, and should become mandatory for all economic operators from March 1, 2034.

Summary of key dates

Date	Measure / Legal Basis
September 20, 2026	Regulation (EU) 2026/2108 enters into force.
By September 29, 2026	Commission must adopt the first delegated act setting the Union handling fee amount.
10 days after that delegated act	Union handling fee becomes chargeable; previously targeted by the Council for November 1, 2026.
September 21, 2027	General application date of the nUCC, including the importer-for-distance-sales obligations and the penalty regime.
June 1, 2028	EU Customs Data Hub functionalities for distance sales/IOSS required to be operational.
July 1, 2028	Data Hub becomes usable for e-commerce/IOSS.
March 1, 2031	Data Hub open for voluntary use by other economic operators.
March 1, 2034	Data Hub mandatory for all economic operators; customs declarations cease to exist in current form.

KPMG observation

Platforms need to treat September 21, 2027, as the core compliance deadline for “importer for distance sales” obligations and penalty exposure under the nUCC, and July 1, 2028, as the date on which the Data Hub, and Trust & Check facilitations become available. Priority actions include: assessing IOSS registration and Trust & Check eligibility well ahead of 2028 considering the two-year IOSS requirement; engaging an EU indirect customs representative where required; reviewing product-compliance processes; and modelling exposure under the penalty regime.

Businesses also need to consider that the EU’s VAT Import Special Arrangement expires on July 1, 2028. Under that arrangement, the customer is liable for the import VAT on consignments below €150, with the person presenting the goods to customs (typically the postal operator, express carrier or customs agent) collecting that VAT from the customer and remitting it monthly. Its expiry further incentivizes distance sellers and platforms to use the IOSS scheme. As a result, the duty treatment and the VAT treatment of distance sales will be closely aligned, leaving only consignments with values above €150 subject to different treatment as the VAT Directive has not been amended to include such transactions in the VAT “distance sales” category.

In an addendum to the VAT e-commerce explanatory notes, the Commission clarified that the temporary €3 customs duty is not part of the taxable amount reported under the IOSS, since it becomes due only when the customs declaration for release for free circulation is accepted, and not at the time of the sale. Under the Special Arrangement and the standard procedure, import VAT is due and the €3 duty forms part of the taxable amount on which that VAT is charged. On the Union handling fee, the Commission considers it compensation for a service rendered by a public authority acting as such and therefore outside the scope of VAT. As the fee is not a customs duty, it does not form part of the VAT taxable amount upon importation, and no VAT is due on the fee.

Period	Customs Duty (≤ €150)	Customs Duty (> €150)	VAT (≤ €150)	VAT (> €150)
Now	Flat €3/item	Standard ad valorem (unchanged, always applied)	IOSS/deemed-supplier available; Special Arrangements available as non-IOSS fallback	Standard import VAT (no IOSS access)
From Sep. 21, 2027	No duty-rate change — but nUCC's formal "importer for distance sales" status + penalties now apply, for distance sales of any value	Same overlay applies	No change	No change
From July 1, 2028	€3 duty is scheduled to expire and is to be replaced by standard ad valorem duty (same as > €150 goods), subject to the Commission confirming by December 1, 2027 that the EU Customs Data Hub will be operational; if not, the flat duty may be extended	Standard ad valorem (unchanged)	IOSS/deemed-supplier still available; Special Arrangements expires—no more customer-liability fallback for non-IOSS shipments	Standard import VAT (unchanged; still no IOSS access)

Contacts

For more information, contact a KPMG tax professional:

Philippe Stephanny | philippestephanny@kpmg.com

Thomas Sigtermans | thomassigtermans@kpmg.com