By 2025, 97 per cent of parcels in the European Union will be from e-commerce

In 2025, there were six billion items authorised for free circulation within the European Union: an increase of nearly 300 per cent compared with 2022. The driving force behind this surge is e-commerce originating from outside Europe: parcels from online retailers now account for 97 per cent of incoming shipments. This situation is outlined in the ‘Report on controls on products entering the EU market’, published by the European Commission on 20 July. Furthermore, over 91 per cent of goods entering Europe are classified as ‘low-value parcels’ originating from e-commerce. According to the report, ‘this is far more than customs and market surveillance authorities can handle using traditional methods’.

Last year, inspections were carried out on 387,588 items: in just under 182,000 cases, or 46 per cent, no serious risks or indications of non-compliance with European legislation were detected. However, 53 per cent of the inspections resulted in a suspension of entry pending further checks. Just over 58,000 products were rejected by the customs authorities, accounting for 15 per cent of the total and 28 per cent of the products whose entry had been suspended. Compared with the previous year, when there were 64,322 refusals, this represents a slight decrease.

The inspection rate has fallen to 65 items per million imported items: in 2024 it stood at 82 per million, and in 2022 it was as high as 203 per million. The rate of goods held up at the border pending assessment reached 34 items per million, whilst waste amounted to fewer than 10 per million. A Commission survey also highlights that more than 60 per cent of products – including toys, electronic goods, cosmetics, personal protective equipment and food supplements – purchased online from outside the European Union do not meet the safety and compliance requirements imposed by the EU. In particular, out of a sample of over 11,000 items tested – including cosmetics, personal protective equipment and food supplements – in 65 per cent of cases, beauty products were found to fall short of European standards. Similar figures were recorded for protective equipment, with 60 per cent of cases found to be non-compliant.

However, significant differences remain between Member States: last year, the best-performing countries were able to identify non-compliant products at a rate 384 times higher than the worst-performing countries. Compared with 2024, when the difference was 1,884 times, this represents a significant reduction, but the gap remains ‘far too wide’.