Italy's own €2 fee on parcels from outside the EU now starts on 1 December 2026, after its third postponement. It is charged per parcel, and it sits on top of the EU charges: the €3 duty per product line since 1 July and the €2 handling fee per customs item (each declaration line), set to start on 1 November once the Commission's act is published in the EU's Official Journal.

So a one-product order into Italy could pay €7 from December, against €5 anywhere else in the EU. Whether Italy's fee actually starts is contested, because the European Commission has said national handling fees have to stop once the EU fee applies.

This guide covers:

• What Italy's fee is, what it is charged on, and the new 1 December date
• How it stacks with the EU €3 duty and €2 handling fee, in worked examples
• Why the Italian fee might not start at all
• Where Romania's 25 lei fee and France's suspended €2 fee stand
• What to change for Italian and Romanian orders before November

Italy's €2 fee: per parcel, from 1 December

Italy's 2026 Budget Law created a flat €2 "contributo" on every shipment from outside the EU worth €150 or less. Three things make it different from the EU charges:

• It is per parcel. The law says €2 "for each shipment". It does not count products or units. A parcel with one T-shirt and a parcel with five different products both pay €2.
• It only covers parcels up to €150. An order over €150 pays no Italian fee.
• Italian Customs collects it at import, from the importing side: the seller, platform, broker or courier that clears the parcel.

The start date has moved three times: 1 January 2026, then 1 July, then 1 October, and now 1 December 2026. The latest move came in Decree-Law 162 of 17 September, and Italian Customs confirmed on 23 September that it will start collecting from 1 December. The decree puts the cost of this last two-month delay at €40.8 million in lost revenue, which gives a sense of how many parcels it touches.

How it stacks with the EU charges

From 1 November every ecommerce parcel into the EU pays the EU's €2 handling fee per product line, and parcels under €150 already pay €3 duty per product line. The per-line rule is explained in full in the guide to the new EU customs fees. The short version: units of the same product share one line, different products each get their own.

Italy's fee is counted differently, so it adds a flat €2 per parcel on top. As of 29 September 2026, for a parcel into Italy worth €150 or less:

• 1 to 30 November: EU charges only, €5 per product line
• From 1 December, 1 product (any number of units): €3 + €2 + €2 = €7
• 2 different products: €6 + €4 + €2 = €12
• 3 different products: €9 + €6 + €2 = €17
• Order over €150: no Italian fee and no flat €3 duty. Normal duty rates, plus the EU €2 per line.

Across the orders shipped to Italy between 1 July and 28 September 2026, 55% held one product, 30% held two and about 15% held three or more. The median Italian order was worth about €79, and about 1 in 25 was over €150. Italy was about 1 in 16 of all EU orders in that window.

So if the Italian fee goes ahead, most Italian orders pay €7 from December, around 9% of a €79 order. The €2 Italian part is the same whether the parcel holds one product or five.

Why the Italian fee might not start

The EU's position is that its fee replaces national fees like Italy's, rather than sitting next to them.

A European Commission spokesperson told Romanian press in June that "member states will have to stop applying national handling fees once the Union handling fee starts to apply, at the latest in November this year." The EU fee is set in Article 20 of the new Union Customs Code, and an Italian tax lawyer has argued in the national press that this article rules out a second national charge for the same customs work.

Italy's own stated reason for each delay was to avoid overlapping with the EU measures. But 1 December falls after the EU fee starts on 1 November, so the overlap is now built into the dates. Three outcomes are possible:

• Italy delays again, as it has done three times already, or drops the fee
• The fee starts on 1 December and is challenged later
• The fee starts and stays, and Italian orders carry €2 more per parcel than the rest of the EU

Nothing has been decided yet. The safer choice might be to price as if it will apply, and remove it if Italy delays again.

Romania: 25 lei per parcel, due to end

Romania has charged 25 lei (about €5) per parcel under €150 from outside the EU, delivered to individuals, since 1 January 2026. Its Ministry of Finance calls it a domestic tax obligation rather than a customs charge.

The Commission spokesperson's statement above was made about exactly this fee: it can only stay until the EU handling fee applies. As of 29 September, Romania has not announced that it will end it.

For a one-product order into Romania:

• Today: €3 duty per line + about €5 per parcel = about €8
• From 1 November, if Romania ends its fee: €5 per line, like the rest of the EU
• From 1 November, if it does not: €5 per line + about €5 per parcel = about €10

France: suspended since 1 July

France charged €2 per product type on low-value parcels from 1 March 2026. The government suspended it from 1 July, the day the EU €3 duty started, so that one product type would not pay €5 (the €2 French fee plus the €3 EU duty), and said it would wait for the EU scheme due in November.

So France is not charging a national fee today. From 1 November, French orders pay the EU charges only, €5 per product line, like the rest of the EU.

What to change before November

1. Add €2 per parcel to Italian orders under €150 from 1 December in your pricing or free-shipping threshold, and take it back out if Italy delays again.
2. Price Romanian orders both ways until Romania confirms what happens on 1 November: €5 per line, or €5 per line plus about €5 per parcel.
3. Split pricing by country if your EU rate is one flat number. Italy and Romania can now cost more to land than Germany or France for the same order.
4. Keep duties paid at checkout. A customer asked for €7 or €12 at the door might refuse the parcel, and Dutch Customs says the EU €2 fee is not refunded on a refusal.
5. Check the dates again in late November. Italy has moved this date three times in nine months.

How we handle this at Commercive

Commercive is your all in one sourcing and fulfilment partner. We ship EU orders from China on frontier lines like YunExpress, Yanwen and 4PX.

National fees like Italy's and Romania's are charged at import in the destination country, whoever ships the parcel. The shipping line clears the parcel and pays the charges, and they come back on the shipping bill. As of 30 September, none of the lines we use has sent a notice on how it will apply the EU fee or the Italian fee. When they do, we will tell every client how each one shows up on their bill.

You can see our measured delivery times by line and country on our shipping status page, and how we handle China fulfilment end to end here.

If you're currently running a brand, just give us the product and your daily order volume. We'll get you a quote within the next 24 hours to hold up against what you're paying today.

How we measured this. Measured on every order shipped to EU countries from 1 July to 28 September 2026 across our client base. A product counts once however many variants or units are in the order. Rules are quoted from Italian Customs (notice of 23 September 2026), Decree-Law 162/2026, the French government (30 June 2026) and a European Commission spokesperson as reported by Profit.ro (19 June 2026), as of 29 September 2026.

When does Italy's €2 parcel fee start?

1 December 2026, according to Decree-Law 162 of 17 September 2026 and Italian Customs' notice of 23 September. It was postponed three times before that, and it could still move again.

Is Italy's €2 fee per parcel or per item?

Per parcel. The law charges €2 for each shipment from outside the EU worth €150 or less. The EU's own €2 handling fee is different: it is charged per customs item, meaning each declaration line.

Does Italy's fee stack with the EU €2 handling fee?

On the current dates, yes. From 1 December a one-product parcel into Italy would pay €3 EU duty, €2 EU handling fee and €2 Italian fee, so €7. The Commission has said national handling fees must stop once the EU fee applies, so this is contested.

Is Romania's 25 lei parcel fee ending?

A European Commission spokesperson said in June that Romania can only keep it until the EU handling fee applies, at the latest in November 2026. As of 29 September 2026, Romania has not announced an end date.

Does France still charge €2 on small parcels?

No. France suspended its €2 fee on 1 July 2026, when the EU €3 duty started, and said it would wait for the EU scheme due in November.