This renewed call emerges one year after the Villepinte Declaration, which united industry stakeholders in addressing the challenges posed by ultra-fast fashion imports flooding the European market.
In July, the EU removed the customs duty exemption for parcels valued under €150 and imposed a temporary €3 duty per item classification, seeking to strengthen border controls for the billions of packages arriving each year.
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Industry bodies, including the French Union of Fashion and Apparel Industries (UFIMH), the Union of Textile Industries (UIT), and the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (EURATEX), state that the new duty represents a positive first step but is “not sufficient” given the administrative and operational demands placed on customs authorities and market surveillance agencies.
These imports, the groups say, generate escalating costs for customs processing, risk analysis, logistics, and product safety enforcement.
According to the associations, the fee currently being considered between €2 and €4 per parcel falls short of the actual cost required to enforce compliance. The groups are advocating for a higher handling fee set at a level that truly reflects these enforcement and surveillance pressures.
They propose that €10 per parcel is a more realistic benchmark based on the resources customs and surveillance authorities require to process, assess, and manage the growing volume of imported parcels.
UFIMH co-president Lionel Guérin said: “Every parcel entering the Union generates a cost: customs controls, product safety, market surveillance and waste management. Today, that cost is borne by European taxpayers and by the companies that comply with the rules. A €10 handling fee is not a tax: it reflects the real cost of a business model that has so far passed its external costs on to others.”
In their statement, the associations also called for greater accountability from online platforms that facilitate the sale and import of goods to EU consumers.
They pressed the Commission to speed up adoption of the Deemed Importer approach, which would require digital platforms to take responsibility for customs compliance, product safety, and the enforcement of EU regulations.
EURATEX president Mario Jorge Machado said: “The European textile industry represents 1.3 million jobs and 200,000 companies, the vast majority of them SMEs, applying some of the most demanding social and environmental standards in the world. They cannot compete with flows of goods that partly escape our rules and our statistics. We are asking for two simple things: that these parcels are declared to customs as precisely as any other goods, and that the costs of controls are financed by those who make them necessary.”
The textile bodies have further recommended harmonising responsibilities across customs, market surveillance, product-safety and digital legislation, to ensure platforms and third-country sellers are subject to accurate, coherent controls.
EURATEX warned of the risk of creating new loopholes and said: “Stronger controls on individual parcels should not simply encourage operators to switch to bulk imports, European warehouses or fulfilment centres. Effective oversight must apply regardless of the logistics model used. Customs authorities need access to equivalent and detailed data for both B2C and B2B flows if they are to enforce EU rules effectively.”
The groups have also requested that the Commission consider special arrangements for countries closely integrated with the EU, such as those in the EU Customs Union or the EEA, as long as equivalent customs and enforcement safeguards are in place.
The industry associations concluded that any new measures should focus on effective enforcement, clear accountability for non-EU sellers and platforms, and ensuring that compliant European businesses are not disproportionately burdened.
They cautioned that further action should wait until the impact of the €3 duty and the future handling fee is assessed, stressing the need for robust customs enforcement and a level playing field within the Single Market.
UIT president Olivier Ducatillion added: “One year after the Villepinte Declaration, the first concrete steps are in place. This is a good start, and France has clearly been a driving force. But there is no reason to ease the pressure: ultra-fast-fashion platforms are more agile, faster and often more inventive than our procedures.
“To restore fair competition, we must keep acting together—as French and European federations, alongside our international partners. Alone, we raise the alarm; together, we carry weight.”
