AliExpress is going against Brussels! Customs duty and the new EU fee for you are quietly paid for, so from 17 € only 6 cents remain in your cart

To the three-euro customs duty that the EU collects from July 1, a new handling fee of 2 € has been added, and AliExpress is already charging it at checkout—so one product from China will get more expensive by 6.15 €. One deal still covers it, though. In the Bundle Deals Duty Covered channel, on Sunday, October 25, we went through the entire purchase all the way to checkout, and AliExpress deducted the customs duty and the new fee for three products. From import fees totaling 17 €, we ended up paying 6 cents.

Cart test: 17 € in fees, we paid 6 cents

We added two clips for glasses priced at 2.78 € and 2.01 €, and Xiaomi MIJIA sunglasses for 17.81 €—for a total of 22.60 €. Checkout added estimated import fees of 17 €, but immediately below that line there appeared a line AliExpress import charge reduction with a discount of 16.94 €. The final amount was therefore 22.66 €, even though without the deal the same purchase would have cost 39.60 €.

The discount consists of two parts. The fixed reward „Buy 3+, import charges on us“ is now 5 € instead of the original 3 €, which matches exactly the 3 € customs duty and the new 2 € fee. The second part, called „Duty benefits“, will cover the rest of the fees including VAT, and for our cart it was 11.94 €.

In the fee breakdown, AliExpress listed a handling fee of 2,04 € and customs duty of 14,96 €. Why these exact amounts were chosen, the platform doesn’t explain, and with the formula 3,69 € for the second item and 2,46 € for the customs category, those figures don’t match exactly. But you don’t really have to care, because the discount covered almost the entire amount and at delivery you don’t pay anything extra.

How the Bundle Deals Duty Covered deal works

In a special Bundle Deals channel, you pick a category, for example Sunglasses, Essentials, Chargers, Connectors, LED Lighting, Textiles, Bags or Toys, and add at least three products from it. The panel on the right shows how many items you still need, and once the condition is met, AliExpress automatically deducts the discount on import fees at checkout and adds free shipping.

Each category has its own small cart separated from the regular AliExpress cart, and products from different categories don’t add up. So you can’t put a tempered glass, a cable, and a sponge into one deal order. Before paying, double-check that all three products are ticked in the panel, because in our test the MIJIA glasses stayed unticked after adding and therefore weren’t counted towards the condition.

What you can buy in the deal

Most of the assortment is cheap small items from 1 to 10 euros per piece: screen protectors and phone cases, cables, connectors, chargers, clips for glasses, sponges, hangers, or textile accessories. That’s exactly where the deal pays off the most, because three different small items would now cost you over 18 € in fees alone. Among the sunglasses, we also found an original Xiaomi MIJIA Classic Square, so occasionally branded goods also make it into the channel.

Sale coupons 11.11

In September, we checked that the deal can be combined with universal AliExpress coupons. The coupon is applied before the discount on the fees, and in checkout you can see both lines one under the other. The sale 11.11 starts on 1. November and we’ll check right after launch whether the combination with its coupons works the same way. Current codes for Slovakia you can find in this overview:

What to watch out for

AliExpress has not officially announced or published the details of the promotion, nor its end date anywhere. It has been running since September, survived the autumn sale, and according to our test it even adjusted to the new fee, but the platform can change or turn it off at any time. That’s why, before you pay, always check whether your checkout includes a line with a discount under the estimated fees.

Keep your order under 150 €, because within this limit customs duty is a flat €3 for the second item. Above it, customs duty is calculated using the standard rates, and we have not verified whether the promotion would cover such an order as well. If you want to avoid paying the fee entirely even outside the promotion, go for items from European warehouses, where you don’t pay customs duty or the fee.

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