Starting next month, the EU will levy a €3 customs charge on items worth less than €150 bought outside the bloc.
The Commission has described this as a “temporary measure” and estimates that it will impact 93% of all e-commerce goods that are imported into the EU.
On The Hard Shoulder, technology journalist Emmet Ryan described it as ‘Temu tax’.
“For every single one of the items you buy, say you're buying a pen, a notebook, a top and a T-shirt, so like four items there - that's €3 on each of those,” he said.
“That's immediately €12
“Temu is a great example; it's very easy to spend less than €100 euro on 10 items from Timu - really, you can probably spend less than €50.
“Immediately, that's €30 thrown on top of it.”
Packages on a doorstep. Picture by: Beton studio / Alamy Stock Photo.Mr Ryan predicted that Irish outlet Penny’s will be “popping some bubbly” from all the extra business this is about to divert their way.
“The main reason being touted is to protect Irish and EU retailers and manufacturers,” he said.
“The idea being that they can't compete the price level essentially with a lot of these mostly East Asian, Chinese, largely companies who can produce these on bulk.”
Mr Ryan added that the EU has also raised concerns about the environmental impact of cheap products.
“The other thing, which is always one of the classic EU ones in fairness, is it's good for the environment,” he said.
“To try and make people less likely to do all this fast shopping because if you think of the packaging, all this stuff comes in.”
Overall, Mr Ryan predicted it “definitely” will change consumer behaviour and reduce demand for items overseas.
“If the cheapness is reduced, you're going to stop and think because you're going to go, ‘Well,I'm going to buy two or three items that suddenly my bill’s nearly €40, what?’” he said.
“So, I think an awful lot more people, when they get to the checkout, are going to go away and go, ‘Actually, I'm going to rethink that.’”
Main image: The Temu logo. Picture by: Alamy.com.
