trade policy. The number of items ordered online, particularly from China, continued to grow explosively in 2025, posing a challenge for authorities across the EU. Monitoring individual online orders on this scale is impossible, which increases the risks for consumers, businesses and the environment. Finnish Customs has actively participated in public debate on the problems related to trade with China, both on the national level and in the EU. As part of the planned customs reform, a new customs duty will be introduced on 1 July 2026 for all low-value online orders with the aim of curbing trade with China. Challenges posed by e-commerce have been addressed through joint operations with the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF, and new surveillance technology has also been introduced.
Massive systems operate behind the scenes to ensure the smooth flow of international trade. They enable the exchange of information between companies and customs authorities as well as effective enforcement and tax collection. A large-scale project for the development of a new customs clearance system has been in progress for years. In 2025, the project reached its final stages, and it will be completed in 2026. Our customers have been satisfied with the support they have received during the project, and the new customs clearance system has also received good reviews. At the same time, we have been preparing for the centralised systems of the EU that will be introduced in the course of the customs reform. We want to ensure that the needs of our customers will also be taken into account in their specifications and that we can reap the full benefits of centralised system development in the EU in the future.
In this section, we will use examples to explain the role of Finnish Customs in promoting the smooth flow of international trade, ensuring fair competition, and combating the grey economy in cooperation with other authorities.
Our sustainability efforts
In 2025, 54.5 million consignments ordered from online stores arrived in Finland. Of these, 40.5 million were ordered by Finnish consumers, and the rest continued their journey from Finland to other EU countries. The number grew by 69% compared to the previous year. China accounted for 98.5% of all imports related to e-commerce compared to 33.9% in 2021. The average value of consignments imported from China in 2025 was EUR 5.61. The most popular product groups were textiles, plastic products and electronics.
There are many problems associated with these imports. Products that do not comply with requirements may pose a risk to consumer health and safety, not to mention that imports cause irreversible environmental damage. High-quality consumer protection cannot be guaranteed, and the competitiveness of law-abiding companies suffers. The phenomenon also places a burden on the authorities. Finnish Customs or other authorities cannot guarantee the quality or safety of goods sold in online stores and imported from China.
Finnish Customs has actively sought to raise awareness in society and among consumers about the problems associated with imports related to e-commerce. Among other things, Customs has published media releases on the subject and given interviews to the media and influencers in the field. In addition, Customs has participated in current affairs programmes and discussion panels discussing the phenomenon.
Finnish Customs has sought to contribute to resolving these issues by providing expert opinions on the matter and participating in working groups with other authorities. Among other things, Customs has participated in a working group on cheap imports set up by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment. The Director General of Finnish Customs has also been heard by the Economic Affairs Committee of the Parliament of Finland in connection with the processing of the citizens’ initiative “Krääsätalous kuriin – suomalaisyritysten ja kuluttajien oikeuksien puolesta” (Curbing the junk economy – for the rights of Finnish companies and consumers).
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The Finnish Customs Year 2025: Year in figures
The customs reform is a proposal to reform the Union Customs Code and establish an EU Customs Data Hub (EU DataHub) and an EU Customs Authority (EUCA). The EU Customs Authority would be a new EU institution that would guide, coordinate and support national customs authorities. The EU Customs Data Hub would make it possible to simplify customs procedures and strengthen customs control. The Customs Data Hub would eventually replace the current systems used by the EU Member States.
The customs reform progressed rapidly during 2025. The preparation of the new Union Customs Code has reached its final stages, and preparation of the implementing regulations can begin shortly.
In the future, all consignments will be subject to customs duties
In December 2025, an amendment to the Duty Relief Regulation was adopted, removing the EUR 150 limit for relief from customs duties. The change will take effect on 1 July 2026, meaning that customs duties will be levied on all consignments regardless of their value.
In the future, a fixed customs duty of EUR 3 per consignment must be paid on both freight and postal consignments worth up to EUR 150 covered by the Import One-Stop-Shop (IOSS) system as well as postal consignments worth up to EUR 150 not covered by the IOSS system. Other consignments with an estimated value that does not exceed EUR 150 are subject to normal customs duties based on the commodity code of the goods.
The handling fee is separate from customs duties, and its development will continue along with the other regulations processed in the customs reform. The details of the customs reform will be specified in early 2026.
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Starting July 1, 2026, customs duties must also be paid on shipments arriving from outside the EU with a value of up to 150 euros
The Finnish Customs Year 2025: Cooperation for a safer and more unified Europe – EUCAB brings the customs authorities of EU Member States together
The Finnish Customs Year 2025: Year in figures
Finnish Customs is constantly developing its services to meet the requirements of the changing EU legislation and make customs processes easier for customers. By reducing the administrative burden, we also streamline customs services.
The development project for the new customs clearance system has reached its final stages
The new Customs Clearance System (UTU) is a multi-year system development project that has been rolled out to customers gradually. During 2025, the project entered its final stages. New declarations relating to the exit notification and the discharge of special import procedures were added to the Customs Clearance System, and electronic guarantee reference numbers began to be used in import customs declarations. During the year, more declarations have also been processed automatically than before, which shortens the processing times for import amendment requests, among other things. In addition, a new electronic declaration for ship or aircraft supplies was added to the system; it will be introduced in May 2026.
The old national customs clearance systems have been abandoned. In the EU, the transition period for different modes of transport in safety and security declarations ended on 31 December. Safety and security declarations required before the goods arrive in the European Union are submitted to the centralised ICS2 system of the EU.
The administrative burden on companies was reduced by removing declaration obligations
Finnish companies have been required to declare their import and export data on trade in goods between EU countries to Finnish Customs throughout Finland’s EU membership. However, small businesses have been exempt from the declaration obligation if they fall below a certain threshold. Starting from the statistical year 2026, EU import statistics will be compiled based on microdata on exports from other EU Member States into Finland instead of the Intrastat import declarations previously collected from companies.
The declaration obligation will be removed from more than 4,400 Finnish companies. This will reduce the companies’ administrative burden caused by the declarations of trade in goods between EU countries by an estimated 70%. The change in the method of collecting data on EU imports will result in changes to the detailed intra-EU trade import figures in the statistics, but the overall level is still in line with the previous method.
Read customer notices on this topic:
- Message exchange customers in exit: apply now for testing of new declarations (8 January 2025)
- A new guarantee system for import was deployed by Customs on 24 May 2025 (2 June 2025)
- Special procedures for import: on 22 November 2025, there will be changes to the bill of discharge and notification of discharge that affect all importers (4 November 2025)
- Message declarants and software developers who submit monthly ship supply declarations are to apply for message testing (14 January 2026).
The duty of Finnish Customs is to combat the grey economy and economic crime, particularly in relation to cross-border trade in goods and goods traffic. The aim of this work is to ensure that tax revenues are collected in accordance with the law throughout the EU and that the conditions of competition are fair. Various authorities work in close cooperation to combat the grey economy.
The project concerning powers improves the efficiency of customs and tax audits
In the case of grey economy audits, accessing information on businesses is often challenging: the requested information is not provided to the auditors or it is incorrect or incomplete. The fact that data is stored in different locations and in different formats also poses a technical challenge. To improve access to information, the Tax Administration and Finnish Customs have launched a joint project on powers and duties, which is part of the 2024-2027 strategy and action plan for tackling the grey economy and economic crime. The project is preparing the necessary legislative proposals to improve the auditing rights of the Tax Administration and Finnish Customs and to secure evidence in grey economy audits. The aim is to submit the legislative proposal to Finnish Parliament in 2026.
Monitoring tourism companies’ vehicles in Lapland
Vehicles registered abroad generally become subject to car tax when a company operating in Finland starts using them in its business. In the spring of 2025, the authorities noticed that a large number of tourism companies in Northern Finland were transporting their customers in minibuses that were registered abroad. This led to distortion of competition in the tourism sector. Companies that were following the rules by registering their vehicles in Finland and paying car tax were placed at a disadvantage.
The police, Finnish Customs and the Tax Administration carried out a joint inspection of vehicles used for tourism in Rovaniemi on 18 February 2025. A total of 183 vehicles were inspected. During the inspection, 13 minibuses registered abroad were found in the use of Finnish companies. The police removed the registration plates from the vehicles and imposed a driving ban on them. In total, five tourism companies were ordered to pay approximately EUR 316,000 in car tax, negligence fees and tax increases.
The Tax Administration, police and Finnish Customs will continue the enhanced monitoring of vehicles in northern Finland. Cooperation between authorities has proven to be an effective means of tackling this growing phenomenon, which causes significant losses of tax revenue and distorts competition in the tourism sector.
Learn more about the activities of Finnish Customs and the monitoring of tourism companies’ vehicles:
