Austria's new €2 charge on online orders took effect on Thursday, and for consumers the number that matters is likely to be €2.40.
The levy — billed as a "package tax", though the name is misleading — applies to online platforms and retailers that booked more than €100 million in Austrian distance-selling revenue in the previous business year. According to heise online, that initially captures 14 shops: Aliexpress, Amazon, Apple, Best Secret, Ebay, Ikea, Mediamarkt, Otto, Shein, Shop-Apotheke, Temu, Universal, XXXLutz and Zalando. Refurbed, an Austrian marketplace for refurbished goods, is expected to cross the threshold during this year and join in January.
Two design choices are already causing friction. The first is scope: the tax covers not only the platforms but also the small merchants and private individuals selling through them, regardless of how much those sellers turn over themselves. There is no official list of liable retailers — businesses must identify themselves to the Austrian tax office.
The second is the name. Shops may choose whether to pay per package or per order. Because orders are rarely consolidated into a single parcel but are often split across several deliveries, paying per order will typically be the cheaper route — and therefore the standard. Better still for retailers, if goods are lost or damaged in transit, a per-order taxpayer does not incur a second charge on the replacement shipment.
Most retailers are passing the cost on, and because the levy counts toward the taxable base, the advertised €2 becomes about €2.40 with VAT. Returns do not refund the tax: the charge is due even when an order is never paid for or is sent back, which means the merchant absorbs the loss. Otto and Zalando, which both have high return rates, have said they will refund the levy on returns and eat the extra cost to avoid deterring customers.
There are carve-outs. Orders placed in a physical store for later delivery are exempt, as is online ordering with collection at a retailer-branded location. Unusual postal packaging — bags with hot food, open sacks or baskets — is out of scope, as are catalogues, newspapers and magazines unless delivered as parcels. Businesses that can deduct input VAT are generally exempt, which leaves the charge largely on consumers.
Austria frames the measure as shifting the cost of returns logistics and packaging waste onto the e-commerce platforms that generate it, and other European governments are watching it as a possible template. For shoppers, the practical effect is a flat fee on almost every order — one that lands hardest on exactly the low-value, cross-border purchases the levy's designers had in mind.
