Additional Information

Additional Information

New EU customs duty on small parcels from 1 July 2026

From 1 July 2026, the European Union is introducing a new customs duty on low-value parcels entering the EU. This is a temporary measure that will remain in place until 1 July 2028.

A flat customs duty of €3 will apply per item category (HS code) for parcels with a declared value of €150 or less. This means a parcel containing several different types of items may be charged €3 for each distinct item category, not a single flat fee per parcel.

This change removes the previous duty-free treatment for low-value parcels and affects shipments sent from the UK and other non-EU countries into any EU member state.

What this means for you: if you are shipping parcels from the UK to an EU destination, you may see a small additional customs charge applied from 1 July 2026 onwards. This is separate from any VAT already applicable to your shipment.

We recommend checking the customs information for your specific destination country before shipping. You can find country-specific guidance on our Country Guide page.

We will continue to update this page as further details become available.

Additional Information

Royal Mail international export services update

Following the recent cyber incident, we are trialing operational workarounds and have started moving limited volumes of export parcels. While we trial these operational workarounds, we continue to ask customers not to submit any new export parcels into the network. Our initial focus will be to clear mail that has already been processed and is waiting to be dispatched.

We are pleased to announce that we have resumed the export of letters which do not require a customs declaration to all international destinations. From 7pm Wednesday 18 January, customers will be able to start submitting international export letters which do not require a customs declaration into the Royal Mail network again through all channels including Royal Mail post boxes and Post Office branches.

Royal Mail continues to work with external experts, the security authorities and regulators to mitigate the impact of this cyber incident, with a focus on restoring all services for export letters and parcels. Our import operations continue to perform a full service with some minor delays. Domestic services remain unaffected.

We apologise to impacted customers for any disruption this incident may be causing. Please be assured our teams are working around the clock to fully resolve this situation.