Good news for our customers across the European Union: every onetwo3D order shipped to an EU country arrives with all import duty and VAT already paid. No customs bills at the door. No courier “handling fees”. No parcels held hostage until you pay. The price you see at checkout is the price you pay — full stop.
If you’ve ordered parts from outside the EU before, you’ll know the drill: a text from the courier, a demand for duty plus a handling charge, and a wait while it all gets sorted. The EU has just overhauled the rules that used to govern all of this, and we’ve rebuilt our checkout around them so that you never have to think about customs again.
Here’s what changed, and what it means for your orders.
The old world: the 150€ “de minimis” exemption
For years, the EU operated a customs duty exemption for low-value parcels. Any consignment with an intrinsic value of 150€ or less (that’s the value of the goods alone — not shipping or insurance) could enter the EU free of customs duty. Import VAT still applied, but the duty itself was waived.
That exemption is what the industry calls “de minimis”. It made low-value cross-border shopping cheap and simple, but it also created a lopsided playing field — a flood of low-value parcels (largely from China) entered duty-free while EU-based retailers paid duty on everything. The EU decided to level that field.
What changed on 1 July 2026
On 1 July 2026, the EU abolished the 150€ duty exemption entirely. In its place, a new transitional system now applies to parcels arriving from outside the EU. There are two cases, depending on the value of the order.
Orders with an intrinsic value of 150€ or less
These now attract a flat customs duty of 3€ per item category. “Item category” here has a specific meaning: it’s one 3€ charge per distinct HS tariff subheading in the parcel, not 3€ per parcel and not 3€ per individual part.
In plain terms: everything in your basket that classifies under the same customs code counts as one category and is charged once. If your order contains parts that fall under two different customs subheadings, that’s two categories, and so on. The vast majority of our 3D-printer hardware classifies under a small number of subheadings, so in practice most orders fall into just one or two categories.
This flat 3€ rate is a temporary bridge. It runs from 1 July 2026 until roughly mid-2028, when the EU’s new Customs Data Hub is expected to come online and duty will instead be calculated the “normal” way, by full classification, on everything. Until then, the 3€-per-category rule keeps things predictable.
Orders with an intrinsic value above 150€
Nothing dramatic changes here, because orders over 150€ were never covered by the old exemption in the first place. These continue to be assessed at standard TARIC duty rates — the EU’s normal, product-specific tariff based on each item’s classification and country of origin.
VAT: unchanged
Import VAT has always applied to goods entering the EU, and that hasn’t changed. We’re registered under the EU’s Import One-Stop Shop (IOSS), which means VAT is collected cleanly at checkout at your country’s rate and remitted properly on your behalf.
What this means for you: nothing to pay on delivery
Here’s the part that matters most.
Under these new rules, the duty is legally the seller’s responsibility to pay, not something collected from you at your doorstep. We’ve chosen to handle it the same way we handle VAT: we calculate it, we prepay it, and we build it into your checkout total. This is what shipping people call DDP — Delivered Duty Paid.
Concretely, that means:
- The checkout total is the final total. Duty and VAT are already included. There is nothing further to pay when your parcel arrives.
- No courier handling fees. Those irritating “administration” or “clearance” charges couriers add when they collect duty on your behalf? They don’t apply, because there’s nothing left for them to collect.
- No customs delays. Parcels that arrive fully prepaid clear customs far more smoothly, so your parts spend less time sitting in a depot and more time getting to your bench.
- No surprises. You’ll never open a text message asking for money before your printer parts can be released.
A couple of worked examples
Example 1 — a small order under 150€. You order a set of hardware that all classifies under a single customs subheading, with a goods value of 80€. That’s one item category, so 3€ of flat duty applies. We add the 3€ and your local VAT at checkout, you pay once, and the parcel arrives with nothing owing.
Example 2 — a mixed order under 150€. You order parts that span two customs subheadings, goods value 120€. That’s two categories, so 6€ of flat duty (2 × 3€) applies. Again, it’s all added at checkout and prepaid — you see the full figure before you commit, and there’s nothing to pay on delivery.
Example 3 — a larger order over 150€. You put together a bigger build with a goods value of 240€. This sits above the 150€ line, so standard TARIC duty rates apply based on the classification of what you’ve ordered. We calculate that duty, prepay it, and include it in your checkout total exactly as with everything else. Delivered duty paid, no doorstep charges.
The short version
- The old 150€ duty-free threshold is gone as of 1 July 2026.
- Under 150€: a flat 3€ per item category (per HS subheading) — a temporary system in place until ~2028.
- Over 150€: standard TARIC duty rates, as always.
- VAT still applies and is handled via IOSS — no change there.
- For you: every EU order is now duty and tax prepaid at checkout. No doorstep bills, no handling fees, no customs delays.
We’ve done the compliance legwork so you don’t have to. Order the parts you need, see one honest total, and get on with the build.
If you have a question about how these rules affect a specific order or your country, get in touch — we’re happy to walk you through it.
