Starting July 1, 2026, anyone shipping a low-value parcel into the European Union has had to account for something that simply didn’t exist before: a flat €3 (roughly $3.51) customs duty applied to parcels worth under €150 (about $175). The change replaces what had previously been a duty-free exemption for exactly this category of low-value imports, and while the policy applies broadly across e-commerce, its effects are already being felt distinctly within the pet product space.
For an industry that has increasingly relied on direct-to-consumer shipping models, particularly for smaller, lower-cost items like treats, supplements, and accessories, this seemingly modest flat fee carries real implications for how pet brands price, package, and distribute their products across European markets.
Why the EU Made This Move
The policy didn’t emerge in isolation. It’s a direct response to an extraordinary surge in low-value parcel imports flooding into the EU in recent years, driven largely by the explosive growth of direct-to-consumer e-commerce platforms, most notably Chinese platforms like Temu and Shein, whose business models depend heavily on shipping individual, low-cost items directly to consumers from overseas.
The scale of that growth is genuinely striking. In 2025 alone, 5.8 billion low-value parcels entered the EU, marking a 26% year-over-year increase, a volume that had become increasingly difficult for customs authorities to monitor and regulate under the old duty-free threshold system.
The EU’s stated objective behind the new duty is twofold: levelling the competitive playing field between non-EU sellers, who had effectively been operating with a built-in cost advantage under the duty-free system, and established European retailers, while also ensuring more consistent enforcement of the EU’s safety, quality, and traceability standards across all products entering the bloc, regardless of where they’re shipped from or how small the individual parcel might be.
Why Mainstream Pet Food Isn’t Expected to Feel Much Impact
For pet owners worried this signals a major shakeup in everyday pet food pricing, industry analysis suggests otherwise, at least for now. Industry group FEDIAF, along with several market analysts, has indicated that the mainstream European pet food market, spanning dry food, wet food, fresh and frozen diets, and veterinary-specific nutrition, is expected to see minimal direct impact from this new duty structure.
There’s a fairly straightforward explanation for that insulation. The mainstream pet food market across Europe is dominated by domestic EU manufacturers, multinational brands operating local production plants within the EU itself, and established retail channels like Zooplus and Fressnapf, all of whom already operate largely outside the direct-to-consumer overseas shipping model this new duty specifically targets.
Beyond the structural market dominance of local production, there are practical factors reinforcing that protection too. Pet food tends to involve heavier parcel weights than typical low-value imports, and the category is already subject to strict sanitary controls and border certification requirements that inherently favour local or regional production over long-distance direct shipping. Taken together, these factors mean that direct low-value imports currently account for only a low-single-digit share of the overall EU pet food market, a genuinely small slice of an otherwise well-established, locally-anchored industry.
Where the Real Impact Is Landing
If mainstream pet food is largely shielded, the picture looks quite different for a specific segment of the pet product category: lightweight, lower-cost items shipped directly to individual consumers, think individual bags of pet treats, supplements, or small accessories, ordered one at a time from an overseas seller.
These are precisely the kinds of products that had previously thrived under the old duty-free exemption, where a low individual order value meant no additional customs cost, keeping prices highly competitive against local alternatives. With the new flat €3 duty now applied per parcel regardless of value, that pricing advantage shrinks considerably, particularly for genuinely low-cost items where a flat €3 fee represents a meaningful percentage increase on the total order cost.
For business models built specifically around direct-to-consumer overseas shipping, this shift squeezes margins on individual low-cost orders in a way that’s difficult to simply absorb without some structural change to how these products are priced, packaged, or shipped going forward.
How Overseas Pet Brands Are Expected to Adapt
Rather than treating this as an existential threat, industry observers expect non-EU pet brands and sellers to adapt through several practical strategic shifts.
Building EU-based warehousing and fulfilment. One of the more significant expected shifts involves overseas brands moving away from individual, parcel-by-parcel shipping in favour of bulk imports, followed by distribution through European-based warehousing or local fulfilment centres. This approach allows a brand to absorb import costs at the bulk shipment level, rather than passing a flat duty onto every single individual consumer order.
Restructuring order sizes and bundling. Sellers are also expected to respond by raising minimum order thresholds, introducing multipacks, or bundling multiple items together to encourage larger cart sizes per transaction. By increasing the average order value, brands can effectively dilute the proportional impact of the flat €3 duty across a larger purchase, making the fee less noticeable to the end consumer relative to their total spend.
Leaning on established local partners. A third expected adaptation involves overseas brands increasingly selling through established EU importers and European online marketplaces, rather than shipping directly to consumers themselves. This approach effectively outsources the customs and distribution complexity to partners who already have the infrastructure and compliance processes in place, at the cost of some margin sharing with those intermediaries.
What This Means for the Broader Pet Industry Going Forward
Taken together, the EU’s new parcel duty represents a fairly targeted disruption rather than a sweeping industry-wide shift. Mainstream pet food brands with established European manufacturing and distribution networks are likely to continue operating largely as before, while the direct-to-consumer segment of the pet product market, smaller, lower-cost items shipped individually from overseas, faces genuine pressure to restructure how it reaches European pet owners.
For pet industry watchers globally, including in markets like India where cross-border e-commerce for pet products continues to grow, the EU’s approach offers an instructive case study in how import policy can be used to specifically target high-volume, low-value parcel flows without meaningfully disrupting an established, locally-anchored core market. As overseas brands adapt through warehousing, bundling, and local partnerships over the coming months, the practical, on-the-ground effects of this policy on pet product pricing and availability across Europe will become clearer.
Pets News Network is India’s first dedicated media platform for the pet and animal industry. For breaking global pet news, brand coverage, and advertising enquiries, contact: ankur@petsnewsnetwork.com
