From 1 November 2026 (operators may provide them voluntarily from 1 July 2026), customs data for goods sold in distance sales carries product identifiers for each item, not one set per parcel. They are: a merchant product identifier, assigned by the online seller, marketplace or platform (the Commission guidance on the €3 duty and the handling fee, version of 5 October 2026, §8.4.1, expects it to be unique on each website, marketplace or platform, whatever the number of sellers offering the product); a non-standardised manufacturer product identifier, assigned by a manufacturer, producer or product supplier without relying on internationally recognised standards; and, if it exists for the item, a standardised manufacturer product identifier, which relies on such standards (Commission guidance on the €3 duty and the handling fee, version of 5 October 2026, §8.4.3, names the EAN and the ISBN as the most common in Europe). Where an item has no standardised manufacturer product identifier, the guidance (version of 5 October 2026) says the exception code Y081 is declared in data element 12 04 (Additional reference type).
The Commission's guidance (version of 5 October 2026) reads the product-identifier requirement as applying to goods with an intrinsic value not exceeding €150, says business-to-business flows are in principle not concerned, and says it is amending Annex B to clarify this. Reg (EU) 2026/1022, whose Annex point (2)(a) applies from 1 November 2026 (Art 2(3)), says the identifiers shall be provided for each item regarding goods sold in distance sales of imported goods as defined in Article 14(4), point (2), of Directive 2006/112/EC.
Source: Delegated Reg (EU) 2026/1022 (Official Journal text of 1 July 2026): Art 1(1)(b), points (58)–(61) as inserted in Delegated Reg (EU) 2015/2446; Annex point (2)(a); Art 2(3). TARIC document codes C127, C128 and C129 and the exception code Y081: Commission guidance on the €3 duty and the handling fee, version of 5 October 2026, §8.6.
A barcode’s check digit detects transcription and scanning errors (Commission guidance on the €3 duty and the handling fee, version of 5 October 2026, §8.4.3). It says nothing about the other two identifiers: a catalogue with valid barcodes but no non-standardised manufacturer product identifiers is still short one identifier for every item from 1 November 2026.
Source: Commission guidance on the €3 duty and the handling fee, version of 5 October 2026, §8.4.3; Delegated Reg (EU) 2026/1022, Annex point (2)(a) and Art 2(3).
Drop your catalogue into the identifier checker. It reads the merchant, manufacturer and barcode columns, lists the products that have every identifier, and where a product has no barcode it says so instead of failing it.
Open the tool →Every claim on this page is sourced to the legal text or to the Commission's guidance, cited where it is used. DutyVault verifies against primary EU texts (EUR-Lex, DG TAXUD). None of this has been reviewed by a customs lawyer, and consistency with a text is not the same as being right about your exact situation — it is a starting point that makes a lawyer’s hour cheap.
Reviewed on 18 Oct 2026 against Delegated Reg (EU) 2026/1022 and the Commission guidance (version of 5 October 2026).