European Commission increases duty free allowances
Quantitative limits on perfume and edt imported into the EU duty free or duty paid have been scrapped from 1 December. Until this month, cross-border shoppers could only bring 60cc/ml of perfume or 250cc/ml of toilet water into the EU, but now – if the scent is cheap – they can bring much more. Henceforth this will be limited by general financial limits for duty free/paid purchases from outside the EU, raised from €175-€430 for air and sea travellers and €300 for land and inland waterways. Lower land thresholds reflect concerns about potential sales booms from non-EU Eastern European countries with very low prices.
Quantitative limits on perfume and edt imported into the EU duty free or duty paid have been scrapped from 1 December. Until this month, cross-border shoppers could only bring 60cc/ml of perfume or 250cc/ml of toilet water into the EU, but now – if the scent is cheap – they can bring much more. Henceforth this will be limited by general financial limits for duty free/paid purchases from outside the EU, raised from €175-€430 for air and sea travellers and €300 for land and inland waterways. Lower land thresholds reflect concerns about potential sales booms from non-EU Eastern European countries with very low prices.
Meanwhile, separately the European Parliament has amended incoming planned EU duty free legislation so air passengers making transfer flights within the EU ahead of a final flight to a non-EU airport can still buy duty free. The European Commission wants to block such purchases at the first airport they visit.