Dropshipping: a growing business model with new challenges
Dropshipping has become a common feature of e-commerce across Europe. At the same time, growing attention is being paid to the problems associated with the way some businesses use the model. These include inadequate product safety, misleading marketing and difficulties in identifying who is responsible for the products.
What is dropshipping?
In dropshipping, a business sells a product without keeping it in stock. When an order is placed, it is forwarded to a supplier, often in a country outside the EU, which sends the product directly to the consumer. To the consumer, the online shop may appear European, even though the product itself is shipped from another part of the world.
Dropshipping is legal, but it can create challenges
Dropshipping is a legal business model used by many reputable traders. However, the model can also make it easier for unscrupulous traders to sell products that do not meet EU requirements or to give consumers a misleading impression of the trader, the origin of the products or their quality.
The business model itself is therefore not the problem. The challenges arise when it is used in ways that make it difficult for consumers to know who they are buying from, what they are buying and where the product comes from.
Problems with dropshipping seen across Europe
Problems associated with dropshipping have been identified across Europe. They include products containing banned, electrical products with serious safety defects, and other quality issues and goods that look very different from how they were presented in the marketing materials.
Consumers may also face unclear information about delivery times and return conditions – or discover only after making a purchase where the trader is established or where a product must be returned.
The same responsibilities apply
Using an external supplier does not remove the trader’s obligations towards the consumer. Among other things, the trader must provide clear information about the product, the terms and conditions of the contract and who the trader is.
ECC-Net has highlighted the need for greater transparency in dropshipping and recommended that consumers should be clearly informed when products are shipped by a third party, particularly when they are sent from outside the EU.
New customs rules for goods from countries outside the EU
Since 1 July 2026, new EU rules apply to goods purchased from countries outside the EU. For goods with a value of up to EUR 150, a customs duty is now charged, meaning that the previous customs duty exemption has been removed.
The rules apply regardless of which non-EU country the goods are shipped from, including when the purchase is made through a website that gives the impression of being European. One of the reasons for the change is to limit the inflow of unsafe products and create fairer conditions for competition between traders inside and outside the EU.
From 1 July 2028, the temporary fixed customs duty will be replaced by a percentage-based customs duty.