What you have to pay special attention to now

Since July 2021, anyone who buys from Amazon has had to pay close attention to which retailer they are ordering from. Namely, there was an important change that affects additional costs incurred when ordering from China. At first glance you don’t see the problem.

Amazon: Many orders from China are becoming expensive

Anyone who orders something from China has been doing so since July 1, 2022 from the first cent purchase value to checkout. The exempt amount up to 26.28 euros does not apply and you have to pay an import sales tax of 19 percent on everything. Basically, one can say that all orders from China are becoming more expensive. Basically it doesn’t matter if you know that. With orders on Amazon, however, it is not always clear from which country the product is being shipped, as I quickly noticed from my own example.

I wanted to order a nice LED lamp for my garden (look at Amazon). Since I have a Prime membership, I usually always make sure that I order with Prime delivery anyway. But especially with products such as LED lamps, there are many retailers on Amazon who do not offer Prime, but where shipping is still free. And that’s where you have to look very carefully. These Deliveries usually come from China and you have to pay import sales tax for it. The problem is that you don’t see that on the overview page.

As a buyer, I wouldn’t know now that the 32.99 euros additional import fees would come. The price advantage of about 5 euros compared to a similar product with delivery from Germany would be almost completely eaten up and I would have an additional effort if I might have to go to customs to pick up the order.

In this Video we explain the most important facts about returns on Amazon:

What to look out for when ordering from Amazon

Even if Amazon does not directly show that a delivery is taking place from China, there are several clues for recognizing something like this:

• Long delivery time: If a delivery of a product that is in stock takes several weeks, there is a very high probability that the delivery will come from China.
• Merchant details: Before buying, you should always click on the dealer. CN is the abbreviation for China. And overall from the other address data you can already see that this dealer does not come from Germany.

Amazon needs to label more clearly

In principle, it is not a problem for a Chinese retailer to sell its goods via Amazon. Many have their goods already imported to Europe and offer delivery with Prime from Germany. Then you don’t have to worry about any additional fees. Only with direct delivery from China is there a risk that you will also be asked to pay and the bargain is then suddenly no longer a bargain. As long as Amazon doesn’t make this clearer, you have to be careful not to get a nasty surprise.