ONLINE SHOPPERS ARE being saddled with extra charges by delivery companies for them to manage the EU’s new €3 customs charge.

Since 1 July, new EU-wide customs charges took effect, causing a €3 tax to be added to each unique item in orders bought from outside the EU for less than €150. The extra charge has inadvertently caused some orders to attract fees charged by delivery companies.

These fees are known as disbursement fees or administration fees and cover any expenses incurred by the companies while sorting out custom fees for a shopper to keep a package moving through the shipping network. 

If customers don’t pay the new €3 charge at checkout, which may happen if a seller can’t facilitate it, then delivery companies pay the charge for the customer and charge a disbursement fee to cover expenses. 

The charges are generally calculated as a flat fee, or as a percentage of the total tax and duty paid. 

A social media post shared this week showed one FedEx customer had been charged €18.45 as a disbursement fee, alongside the €3 import tax. Commenters were quick to share their own experiences getting hit with disbursement fees, while others labelled the charges a “joke”.

FedEx told The Journal that disbursement fees are not new, but may occur more frequently since the €3 charge has been put in place on a wide-range of imports. 

“When customs duties and taxes are due on an import, FedEx may pay these charges to customs authorities on the customer’s behalf to help clear the shipment and keep it moving through the network. In these cases, a disbursement fee may apply to cover the costs associated with this process,” it said. 

“This fee is not new and was not introduced as a result of the €3 customs duty. However, because duties can now apply to a wider range of low-value imports, customers may encounter these charges more frequently than in the past.”

FedEx is not the only delivery company or postal service applying these charges.

DHL told The Journal that “many of the shipments that now require formal clearance following the introduction of the €3 customs charge are subject to DHL’s Duty Taxes Processing Fee, which allows us to recover the additional costs incurred during the clearance process”.

“This is an existing fee that applies for shipments that have customs or VAT charges. We’ve updated our processes to keep deliveries as smooth as possible, but receivers may notice these fees on imports that previously wouldn’t have had them. The charges vary depending on the value and number of line items,” it said.

DHL said that if the €3 customs fee applied to an order, the corresponding DHL Express disbursement fee would be €5, but this increases to €14.50 if the total amount of duty and VAT exceeds €20.

An Post charges a €6.95 administration fee that is applied if VAT or duties are not collected by the seller at checkout.

Speaking to The Journal, the postal service said that the “vast majority” of non-EU parcels have all customs charges calculated at the online checkout, so the parcel is fully customs cleared and can go straight out on delivery on arrival in Ireland. 

However, it said in other cases, An Post must process and collect the customs charges itself.

“With a far lesser amount of small non-EU sellers who don’t have this inbuilt technology on their websites and where An Post must process and collect the customs charge imposed by the EU and Irish Revenue, as well as securely holding the item, advising the customer, processing the payment and releasing the item back into the delivery system, An Post charges a fee of €6.95, the absolute minimum which just about covers the various costs involved. The majority of these parcels come in from the UK, our largest trading partner,” it said.

“All the carriers charge administration fees for handling the customs charges.”

Advice

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) told The Journal that it recommends shoppers check retailer’s terms and conditions before purchasing to understand how they apply custom charges.

The consumer watchdog said: “Under consumer law, a business must provide you with certain information before you make a purchase online or over the phone. The information includes the name and contact details of the business, details about the product or service and the total price to be paid.”

“Online retailers do not have to collect and pay customs duty. If you do not pay the company, then you will have to pay on delivery. The delivery company (for example, your postal service or courier) will require you to pay the €3 duty per item before your goods can be delivered,” it added.

“They may also add an administration charge making your final bill even higher.”

Consumers can find out more about custom charges at ccpc.ie/customs.