EU Commission considers new tax on web stores and customs duties
Billions of low-value parcels are overloading Europe's customs officers. The new EU Commission is looking for cudgels to throw between Shein and Temu's legs.
Asian online retailers Shein and Temu are taking market share away from European retailers and online retailers alike. At the same time, the flood of parcels means that customs officers are able to check an ever smaller proportion of all shipments for correct declarations. The new EU Commission is unhappy about both. It is looking for ways to make life more difficult for Shein and Temu.
The measures being considered include a new tax on online stores and a handling fee for imported parcels, as the Financial Times has learned from insiders. However, the tax would also affect EU retailers, who already have to charge higher prices anyway. Fierce resistance is foreseeable, which is why it is unclear whether the EU member states would agree.
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The handling fee, on the other hand, would only affect parcels coming from outside the EU. This is more to the liking of traders in the EU, but due to international agreements, the fee must not be higher than the approximate costs incurred by customs officers. The impact would therefore perhaps not be that great.
The EU Commission has already officially proposed abolishing the duty-free limit of 150 euros. Financially, it is not really worthwhile for the public sector to collect such small amounts. However, comprehensive customs clearance would throw a spanner in the works for Asian online retailers. At the same time, the workload for customs officers would multiply. It would be impossible for them to process the many cases; the chance of misdeclared parcels being recognized as such would decrease significantly.
Illegal products, lack of transparency
It is not only the strong competition from Asia that is causing headaches in Brussels, but also the increase in dangerous or even toxic goods entering the EU. In addition, the old EU Commission has opened official proceedings against the Chinese marketplace Temu under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The focus is on three questions.
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Firstly, to what extent Temu's attempts to exclude illegal products are effective at all. Although Temu blocks illegal products quickly –, they quickly reappear on the marketplace. Secondly, it is about influencing customers: The Commission sees a substantiated suspicion that Temu is tempting its users into harmful behavior via customer loyalty programs and inadequate options for algorithmic sorting. The third allegation is that Temu denies researchers access to public data on the platform, which the DSA requires.
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