For two decades, European stores could ship a €40 order to Texas and watch it glide through US customs untouched. That era ended on August 29, 2025 — and it isn’t coming back. Here’s what actually changed, what it costs, and the five adjustments that keep US customers profitable.
ship-audit.com is reader-supported: if you sign up through our links, we may earn a commission at no cost to you. It never changes our recommendations — we recommend Pirate Ship despite earning nothing from it.
The US $800 de minimis exemption is suspended for every country since August 29, 2025 — and confirmed with no end date. Every commercial parcel entering the US now requires a customs entry and applicable duties, whatever its value. For EU Shopify stores, that means five changes: choose DDP over DAP so buyers aren’t ambushed by fees at the door, add HS codes and country of origin to every product, automate customs paperwork through your shipping platform, reprice US orders with duties in mind, and never split shipments to dodge thresholds — fines run $5,000 to $10,000 per violation.
| Before Aug 29, 2025 | Now (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Orders under $800 | Duty-free, minimal paperwork | Customs entry + duties, regardless of value |
| Customs data | Basic declaration | HS code, country of origin, accurate value — every parcel |
| Who pays duties | Nobody (under threshold) | Your buyer at the door (DAP) or you at checkout (DDP) |
| Splitting orders to stay small | Common practice | Penalized: $5,000 first offense, $10,000 after |
| End date | — | None. Permanent elimination is legislated for July 1, 2027 |
Sourced from U.S. Customs and Border Protection guidance and Executive Order 14257 (August 2025). Customs rules evolve — verify current requirements before restructuring, and consult a customs broker for complex cases. This is general information, not legal advice.
What Changed, Exactly
The de minimis rule — Section 321 of the Tariff Act — let goods worth $800 or less enter the US duty-free with almost no paperwork. It’s how cross-border e-commerce scaled: by 2024 it covered over a billion parcels a year. The suspension came in two steps: May 2, 2025 for goods from China and Hong Kong, then August 29, 2025 for every country on earth, including all EU member states and the UK. Subsequent government confirmations set no restoration date, and separate legislation schedules the exemption’s permanent elimination for July 1, 2027.
The practical translation for a European store: there is no longer any order too small to interest US customs. A €35 phone case needs an HS code, a declared origin, an accurate value, and it owes whatever duty its classification carries. The parcel still moves — carriers and platforms have adapted — but the informality is gone, and so is the free ride.
DDP vs DAP: The Decision That Shapes Your US Customer Experience
With duties now applying to everything, someone has to pay them — and when they pay is your single biggest customer-experience decision.
DAP (Delivered At Place) — the default if you change nothing — means the carrier collects duties from your buyer at delivery, usually with a brokerage fee stacked on top. The buyer who paid you €49 gets a knock on the door demanding another $20 they never agreed to. This is where one-star reviews and chargebacks come from.
DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means you collect duties at checkout and remit them, so the buyer pays once and the parcel arrives like a domestic delivery. It requires more setup — duty calculation at checkout and a platform or carrier program that supports DDP labels — but post-de-minimis, it’s the difference between keeping and losing repeat US customers.
The pragmatic rule: if the US is more than a rounding error in your revenue, invest in DDP. If it’s occasional, at minimum warn DAP buyers explicitly at checkout that import charges will apply on delivery.
The Five-Point Compliance Checklist
1. HS codes on every product. The Harmonized System code determines the duty rate. Shopify has a native field for it (and country of origin) in product settings — fill both for your whole catalog once, and every label and customs form inherits them.
2. Accurate values, no games. Under-declaring value or splitting one order into several parcels to look small is now explicitly penalized: $5,000 for a first offense, $10,000 for each one after. The enforcement mechanics exist and the fines are per violation, not per audit.
3. Automated customs paperwork. Hand-writing CN22/CN23 forms or commercial invoices doesn’t survive real volume. This is a platform job: SendCloud generates customs documents automatically from your order data and manages HS codes at the product level — built for exactly the EU-to-worldwide flow this rule change disrupted. Try SendCloud free →
4. Reprice the US lane. Duties are now a real cost of serving US buyers. Model it: either fold an average duty into US prices (simplest), show duties at checkout via DDP tooling (cleanest), or accept DAP with clear warnings (riskiest for reviews). What’s not viable is pretending the cost doesn’t exist.
5. Re-evaluate where inventory sits. If US orders are a large share of revenue, bulk-importing inventory into a US warehouse — paying duties once, wholesale — can beat per-parcel duties forever. That’s a structural move beyond this guide, but 2026 is the year it went from optimization to serious question for EU brands with US traction. For merchants comparing international-first platforms for this kind of setup, our Easyship review covers the DDP and multi-warehouse angle in depth.
Duties are the new cost — don’t add overpaid shipping on top
Run the free shipping audit — origin, volume, package size — and see what your current setup overpays before customs even enters the picture. No signup needed to see your results.
Run Your Free Audit →Frequently Asked Questions
Is the $800 de minimis exemption still suspended in 2026?
Yes. Suspended for China and Hong Kong in May 2025, extended worldwide on August 29, 2025, and confirmed since with no restoration date. Separate legislation makes the elimination permanent as of July 1, 2027.
Do I owe US duties on orders under $800?
Yes. Value no longer exempts a commercial shipment. Every parcel requires a customs entry with HS classification, country of origin and declared value, and pays whatever duty applies to its classification and origin.
What is DDP shipping and why does it matter now?
Delivered Duty Paid: you collect import duties at checkout and remit them, so your buyer never faces a surprise charge at delivery. With duties now universal, DDP is what preserves a domestic-feeling experience for US customers — the alternative (DAP) hands your buyer an unexpected bill at the door.
Can I split a large order into several small parcels to reduce duties?
No — that’s precisely what the new enforcement targets. Structuring shipments to evade duties carries fines of $5,000 for the first violation and $10,000 for each subsequent one.
Does this affect shipping from the EU to countries other than the US?
The suspension is a US import rule. But the direction of travel is global: the EU is dismantling its own low-value exemption for inbound parcels, and the UK is consulting on the same. Building clean customs data (HS codes, origins, accurate values) once now serves every lane later.