In Black Friday week, online purchases from outside the EU bring new fees: from 1 November 2026 a €2 processing charge applies per distinct customs item, on top of the €3 customs duty in force since July, Cristi Movilă, head of the Online Stores Association, tells ProTV News / iBani.

Almost six billion parcels entered the EU last year; processing and control costs now show up in the €2 fee per product category. Two T-shirts with different countries of origin mean the fee twice. A parcel with trousers, a T-shirt and perfume can reach about €15 (roughly 80 lei) when both fees are stacked on three items.

The €3 duty is the customs charge for parcels under €150 that otherwise paid no classic duty. The €2 fee replaces the national processing charge; Romania dropped its 25-lei fee from 1 November too. Officially the seller pays, but the cost lands in the price or appears transparently in the cart.

On returns, customs and processing fees already collected once the goods are in the EU are not refunded automatically — only if the seller chooses to repay them. The policy aims to push extra-EU shops to stock inside the EU and ship from there.

Of the EU processing fee, 75% goes to the Union and 25% to the destination state. For Black Friday, Movilă urges buying from sellers with enforceable consumer rights and a real right of withdrawal — hard to chase across tens of thousands of Chinese vendors.

Image: packaging material (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Sources consulted: Black Friday brings extra fees for purchases from outside the EU - ProTV News.