Family packages sent from outside of the EU will not be exempt from the bloc’s new €2 handling charge. 

The handling fee comes on top of the temporary €3 charge introduced in July on small packages worth less than €150. 

The European Commission has said that the €3 charge was necessary in order to “help protect the competitiveness of European businesses by levelling the playing field between e-commerce and traditional retail”. 

On Newstalk Breakfast, consumer columnist with the Irish Examiner Caitriona Redmond said the €3 charge is explicitly a customs tariff, designed to make non-EU goods less attractive to buy.  

However, the €2 charge is to pay for the extra staff needed to process the increased number of packages. 

“This new €2 fee that's coming in from Sunday, that is what they're calling a customs handling fee,” she explained. 

“While they're saying that the consumer doesn't have to pay it, effectively the consumer is going to have to pay for it in some manner, shape or form. 

“It's going to be bundled into their delivery charges when they're ordering online, or it's going to be baked into the cost of the products that they're buying.” 

Whatever the intentions of the charges, it will ultimately be Irish consumers who pay for the charges. 

People who regularly buy the likes of Amazon UK, Shein or Temu will be especially impacted. 

“The intention is to stem the amount of products that were coming from outside of the EU - lower value products,” Ms Redmond said. 

“That's been something that the EU has had in their sights for quite a long time, even before the US implemented those charges. 

“This €2 is a handling charge, they're saying, so this is associated with the cost of processing the €3 charges. 

“Now, it was always going to be introduced, it's just that they decided to bring in the €3 first and then apply the €2 afterwards.

“So, the only one who loses in all of this is the EU consumer.” 

However, the handling charge will also apply to family parcels sent from Britain, America, Canada and Australia. 

It means sending Christmas presents this year will be more expensive than it was in 2025. 

“Finally, it also includes parcels that are coming from family members who live outside of the EU,” Ms Redmond said. 

“So, you could have to pay a fee if a parcel comes from a family member as well.”

Main image: A courier handing over a package. Picture by: Alamy.com.