Starting November 1, 2026, the EU will require all imported goods entering EU customs territory to provide Product Identifier information at customs declaration, with no value threshold. eBay notified sellers in September that non-standardized goods on its platform—such as second-hand clothing, vintage collectibles, replacement parts, and handicrafts—face filing difficulties due to the lack of manufacturer identifiers, and these goods account for a considerable share of eBay inventory.

Key Points

  • From November 1, the EU requires imported goods to declare a Product Identifier regardless of value, provided by the seller or marketplace platform (eBay uses the listing ID as the merchant product identifier), and a manufacturer-level identifier is also required.
  • Where GTIN/EAN/UPC/ISBN exist, standardized codes may be used; where no standardized code exists, a non-standardized manufacturer product identifier (NS-PID) must be assigned by the manufacturer, producer, or supplier—but some product categories have no NS-PID at all.
  • Since July 1, 2026, the EU has abolished the de minimis exemption for low-value imports under €150, replacing it with a temporary €3 duty per item, a policy continuing until July 1, 2028; identifier data may be submitted voluntarily from July 1 to November 1, and becomes mandatory from November 1.

The new customs data also feeds into multiple customs declaration datasets including H1, H6, and H7. The EU stipulates that standardized manufacturer identifiers are mandatory only when they exist, while merchant identifiers and non-standardized manufacturer identifiers are mandatory fields for cross-border distance sales. The most concentrated question among eBay sellers right now is: what exactly should be filled in for older clothing, second-hand goods that never had a code, and items whose original manufacturer can no longer be traced. The platform advises sellers to search online for NS-PIDs themselves, while also acknowledging that some categories may simply not have such a code—yet it does not explain what to enter when no manufacturer identifier exists.

This change is not an isolated measure. About 5.9 billion low-value e-commerce parcels entered the EU in 2025, and spot checks on categories such as cosmetics, toys, and electronics found that over 60% failed to meet EU standards, prompting the EU to launch broader customs reform. The Product Identifier requirement is a customs data rule and is a separate regime from the General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR); if a product falls outside the scope of GPSR, it is not automatically exempt from the new customs data obligations. Sellers using eBay International Shipping are required to continuously update the manufacturer or standardized product ID in their listings to keep items visible to EU buyers; sellers who ship directly themselves or use SpeedPAK must submit the required information to the carrier. eBay warns that from November 1, missing identifiers may cause customs delays, delivery interruptions, and other problems, but has not yet provided specific filing guidance for when a "manufacturer identifier simply does not exist."

For second-hand clothing and vintage exports, this means a single-item, non-replicable inventory model will face a new compliance checkpoint: whether a manufacturer-level NS-PID can be found—and even in what circumstances it need not be found—will directly affect whether sellers' EU orders can clear customs smoothly.

Source: EU Product Identifier Rules Could Complicate eBay Sales Of Used, Vintage Goods · Originally published 2026-10-06