Original article (in Bosnian) was published on 22/06/2026; Author: Nerma Šehović
What are the claims?
The EU has introduced €3 tariffs on products from Shein and Temu on the grounds that such products are dangerous for children.
What are the facts?
The tariffs were not introduced because of product safety concerns, but to ensure fair market competition.
On June 16, 2026, the website Logično published an article about tariffs that the European Union is introducing on products purchased from the e-commerce platforms Temu and Shein.
The article questions the “logic” behind these tariffs:
Customers ordering cheap goods from Temu and Shein will soon have to dig much deeper into their pockets. The European Union is introducing a €3 tariff per product on all packages from China, with the official explanation that these products are dangerous for children. The logic behind this decision is so bizarre that one has to stop and rub one’s eyes.
Think about it for a moment. A product is dangerous until you pay three euros, and once customs collects the fee, it magically becomes safe for your child. No inspection, no testing, no changes to the product itself. Just three euros transferred from your wallet to the state treasury. It’s like saying fire is dangerous until you buy a firefighter’s ticket.
(…)
France tested toys from these platforms and found that more than 90 percent failed to comply with EU standards. The solution was not to stop imports, carry out border inspections, or punish the traders. The solution was to charge three euros. The dangerous toy still arrives at your home, only now with a customs sticker that has somehow made it less dangerous.
The article concludes by claiming that a “dangerous toy” does not become any less dangerous “just because you stick a €3 customs stamp on it,” arguing that the measure proves society is “ready to swallow any nonsense presented under the guise of protection.”
What are the Facts?
Temu and Shein are internationally available Chinese online marketplaces known for offering a wide range of products at very low prices. Beginning on July 1, 2026, new EU rules will require customs duties of €3 per item on small packages arriving from “third countries,” meaning countries outside the European Union. Until now, packages valued below €150 were completely exempt from customs duties. The measure does not apply exclusively to Temu and Shein, although it has attracted the most attention because of the platforms’ popularity across the EU (1, 2, 3).
However, the claims made by Logično that the official justification for the tariffs is that the products are “dangerous for children,” and that this tariff is the only measure the EU has taken to regulate Temu and Shein – without inspections, testing, or penalties for sellers – are false. A European Commission statement published in November 2025 explains that the removal of the customs exemption for packages valued below €150 was motivated by the fact that the exemption “is no longer justified” and creates “unfair competition.”
An article published in April 2026 on the website of the logistics and trade company Carra Globe explains:
The €150 de minimis threshold was created decades ago to reduce the administrative burden on customs authorities processing small personal shipments. At the time, cross-border e-commerce barely existed. A tourist sending a gift home was the intended beneficiary. The rule was never designed for what it has become in practice: a duty-free highway into the EU single market for foreign manufacturers shipping billions of commercial packages directly to European consumers without paying a single euro in customs duties.
The tariffs therefore have nothing to do with unsafe children’s products, nor is product safety cited as the official justification. No one claims that a dangerous toy becomes safe after a €3 customs fee is paid.
Under EU laws and regulations, all products sold within the European Union must comply with EU safety standards, regardless of where they are manufactured. Member states are required to monitor products offered to EU consumers and remove unsafe products from the market if necessary. It is true that investigations conducted in recent years by EU member states found that a significant number of tested products sold through Temu and Shein, including products intended for children, failed to comply with EU safety standards (1, 2). Both the European Union and individual member states have taken measures against these platforms that are unrelated to customs tariffs.
In May 2026, the European Union fined Temu more than €200 million after an investigation found that the platform had failed to take adequate action against the sale of illegal products, such as unsafe children’s toys and defective electrical devices, as required under the Digital Services Act (DSA). A similar EU-level investigation into Shein is currently underway, while several individual member states, including France and Italy, have already imposed multimillion-euro fines on the platform for various violations ranging from unsafe products and deceptive marketing practices to environmental breaches.
Packages ordered through these platforms, although previously exempt from customs duties, have always been subject to checks upon entering the EU, and authorities routinely seize products that violate EU regulations. Nevertheless, some products still manage to pass through these controls (1, 2). For that reason, the EU and its member states have introduced additional measures aimed at limiting the entry of such products into the European market. The French Parliament, for example, has voted to ban advertising by Shein, Temu, and other ultra-fast fashion companies, while the concerning findings of investigations into these platforms are regularly communicated to the public across the EU.
Contrary to the claims made by Logično, the EU and its member states have carried out inspections, investigations, border controls, fines, and bans concerning products sold through Shein and Temu. Customs duties are only one element of a broader regulatory approach directed at these platforms, and they are intended to address market competitiveness rather than product safety.
Based on the facts above, we rate the claim that the EU is introducing a €3 customs duty on products ordered from Shein and Temu because the products are dangerous for children as disinformation. We give the same rating to the claim that no testing or investigations of these products are conducted and that sellers are not penalized for marketing unsafe products.
We rate the claim that paying the customs duty absolves these platforms of responsibility for “dangerous toys” as manipulation of facts.
