- Volumes swamp controls. The Commission’s report, published 20 July 2026, shows around 6 billion items were released for free circulation in 2025 — roughly three times the 2022 figure — with low-value e-commerce consignments making up the overwhelming majority of shipments entering the EU. [ebs.publicnow.com]
- Enforcement rates keep falling. The control rate dropped to 65 interventions per million items (down from 82 in 2024 and 203 in 2022), the suspension rate to 34 per million, and the discovery rate to fewer than 10 refusals per million, despite 387,588 interventions and 58,391 refusals in absolute terms. [brusselstimes.com], [ebs.publicnow.com]
- Reform is the answer. A Priority Control Area operation found over 60% of checked toys, electronics, cosmetics, PPE and food supplements non-compliant; the Commission positions the abolition of the €150 duty relief, a temporary €3 duty, and new Product Identifier rules as the structural fix. [ebs.publicnow.com], [trade.ec.europa.eu]
Article
On 20 July 2026, the European Commission published its Report on controls on products entering the EU market with regard to product compliance in 2025, a stark assessment of how customs and market surveillance authorities are coping — or failing to cope — at the EU’s external borders. Customs continue their dual role of collecting duties and taxes while enforcing prohibitions and restrictions, using risk analysis under the Union Customs Code and electronic tools such as the Customs Risk Management System (CRMS2) for real-time exchange of risk information. [unece.org]
The headline problem is scale. Around 6 billion items were released for free circulation in 2025 — about three times the 2022 level — driven almost entirely by e-commerce, which accounted for the overwhelming majority of all shipments entering the Union. Against this tide, customs carried out 387,588 interventions, suspended 205,888 consignments for referral to market surveillance authorities, and ultimately refused 58,391 consignments as non-compliant or dangerous. Yet in relative terms enforcement is thinning: the control rate fell to 65 interventions per million items (from 82 in 2024 and 203 in 2022), the suspension rate to 34 per million, and the discovery rate to below 10 refusals per million. [brusselstimes.com], [ebs.publicnow.com]
A large-scale Priority Control Area investigation underlined the risk, finding that over 60% of checked toys, small electronics, cosmetics, personal protective equipment and food supplements bought online from outside the EU failed compliance and safety requirements. Enforcement also varies dramatically between Member States — the best performer recorded a discovery rate 384 times higher than the worst. [ebs.publicnow.com]
The Commission frames the EU Customs Reform as the principal long-term response. The abolition of the €150 customs duty relief threshold, the introduction of a temporary €3 customs duty per item (from 1 July 2026 to 1 July 2028, under Council Regulation (EU) 2026/382), and new Product Identifier requirements (mandatory from 1 November 2026) are designed to strengthen risk-based controls, deepen customs–market surveillance cooperation, and pave the way for the future EU Customs Authority and Data Hub in mid-2028. [trade.ec.europa.eu], [avalara.com], [taxation-c….europa.eu]
Links: Commission report announcement (DG TAXUD) · Report publication (EU Publications Office) · Brussels Times coverage · €3 duty / Access2Markets · Avalara on €150 threshold removal
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