If customs duty is due, the rate will vary depending on the exact nature of the product. To find out, you have to consult
www.trade-tariff.service.gov.uk. Allow several hours and a stiff drink.
As to the trainers, there are a number of categories for footwear, depending on what the sole is made of, and how it’s attached, which will make your hair stand on end. Clothes, shoes and food incur the highest rates; on 40% of merchandise there’s none at all.
Added to that is the handling fee charged by the delivery firm – and customers rarely get to choose which one it is.
Royal Mail has a flat fee of £8, and won’t deliver until you pay up. DHL pays the customs duty and import VAT on your behalf, but charges a fee of 2.5% of the duty/tax, with a minimum charge of £11.
The questions show how Brexit has compromised many of the consumer rights we take for granted. Take a seller’s failure to warn of the extra charges.
EU consumer protection legislation doesn’t generally apply now the UK has left the EU, according to James Kane of the Institute for Government, although member states can choose to extend it to non-EU consumers under the new Omnibus Directive.
So no, the seller doesn’t necessarily have to publish a warning to customers outside the bloc. And as for returning items, EU sellers may not have to apply distance-selling regulations which allow customers to cancel within 14 days.
“EU sellers might refuse to accept returns from the UK because they would then have the hassle of clearing the goods back through customs, and having to claim exemptions from EU import duty,” says Kane. “You, as the ‘exporter’ of the goods you’re returning, will have to fill out a customs declaration form, which you can get from the post office.”