Customs and compliance terms for importers
Importing into the EU means acquiring a small collection of numbers and registrations, each issued by a different body for a different purpose. Two of them (EORI, the commodity code) are needed before anything can clear at all. The rest depend on what you sell.
The last three — anti-dumping duty, CBAM and EPR — are the ones that surprise people, because they apply to ordinary goods and are not visible in the duty rate you looked up.
EORI number
The identifier customs authorities use for your business across the whole EU. Required for any commercial import or export, issued free by your national customs authority.
Practical points
One number covers all member states — you do not need a separate one per country. Application is usually online and takes days rather than weeks, but arrange it before goods arrive: a container waiting at the port while you register accrues demurrage.
It is not a VAT number and does not replace one. A business can hold an EORI without being VAT-registered, and vice versa.
HS code (commodity code)
The numeric classification of your goods. Together with the country of origin it decides the duty rate, any import restrictions, and whether anti-dumping measures apply.
How specific it gets
The first six digits are the international HS heading. The EU extends this to ten digits in TARIC, and the rate can differ between codes that look almost identical. Two products indistinguishable in a catalogue may sit several percentage points apart.
Whose responsibility it is
Yours, as the importer — not your supplier’s. Suppliers routinely guess, and a wrong classification means reassessed duty plus penalties, sometimes years later. Take the code they give you as a starting point and verify it in TARIC.
TARIC
The European Commission database of duty rates, import restrictions and trade measures, searchable by commodity code and country of origin.
What to check in it
Three things, in this order: the duty rate for your code and origin, whether anti-dumping or safeguard measures apply, and whether any licence or certificate is required.
The third is the one people skip and the one that stops a shipment at the border. A rate you can budget for; a missing certificate you cannot fix while the container accrues demurrage.
Anti-dumping duty
An extra duty charged on top of the normal rate for specific goods from specific countries, imposed where the EU has found them sold below fair value. Rates regularly reach double digits.
Where it bites
Long-standing EU measures cover bicycles and e-bikes, steel fasteners, ceramic tableware and tiles, and solar panels from China, among others. Some rates pass 60%, which turns a workable margin into a loss.
Measures are product and manufacturer specific: the same goods from a named factory can carry a different rate than from an unnamed one. Check before ordering, not when the container is at the port.
CBAM (Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism)
An EU charge on the carbon embedded in certain imported goods — steel, aluminium, cement, fertiliser, hydrogen and electricity — designed to match the carbon cost EU producers already pay.
Who it affects
Importers of the covered goods, identified by commodity code. If you import steel fasteners, aluminium profiles or similar, it applies to you even if you are a small trader rather than an industrial buyer.
It sits outside the normal duty-plus-VAT chain, so it will not appear in a landed cost calculation unless you add it deliberately.
EPR (extended producer responsibility)
The obligation to register and pay for the collection and recycling of the packaging, electricals or batteries you place on a market. Registration is per country, not per EU.
Why sellers get caught
It is not a customs matter and not a tax matter, so it is missed by people who have carefully sorted out both. Marketplaces now check registration numbers and will suspend listings without them.
Fees are charged per tonne of material placed on the market, which makes packaging weight a direct cost — one more reason not to over-box.
GPSR (General Product Safety Regulation)
The EU rules requiring consumer products to have an identifiable responsible person established in the EU, traceability markings and safety information — applicable since December 2024.
What it means in practice
Every product needs a named economic operator in the EU who can be contacted about safety. A seller established outside the EU cannot be that person and must appoint one.
Listings also need manufacturer details, batch or model identification and any warnings in the language of the market. Marketplaces enforce this and remove listings that lack it.