Why EU tariffs on AliExpress purchases hit repairs hardest

The underlying problem with tariffs on AliExpress purchases is not that they are charged, but that they apply equally to clothing and household goods and to a spare battery that is neither made nor sold in Europe. That lack of distinction makes repairs more expensive and pushes devices that still work into the bin.

The European Union has long been eyeing Asian e-commerce platforms warily. The debate over tariffs on packages arriving from China is not about whether taxes should be paid, but about what gets taxed and what is left out. The criticism with the most traction is not the fiscal one, it is the fine print: the customs regime treats a Shein dress the same as a replacement battery for an eight-year-old laptop.

## The fiscal argument almost nobody disputes

When an item is sold in Europe, it pays corporate tax, generates jobs in the distribution chain and keeps brick-and-mortar stores alive. A package that arrives directly from China at the buyer's door goes through none of that. There, the tariff has a logic that even those who suffer it recognise: if you can buy a frying pan at **Ikea**, which pays taxes here even though it manufactures in Asia, the platform selling the same pan with no middlemen is playing in a different league.

The problem arises when that logic is applied across the board. The measure does not distinguish between the mass consumption of clothing, kitchenware and home décor and the trickle of loose components that nobody produces in Europe.

## The battery nobody makes here

There are products that are not mass-consumption items and will not be manufactured in the EU. A battery for an ageing laptop, a USB adapter to reuse the SSD from an old miniPC, a pack of **100 desiccant bags** for vacuum-sealing nuts. There is no physical store where you can buy them. They only appear on marketplaces, and under the new customs regime the middleman raises the price because he knows ordering from China costs more.

That extra cost protects no European industry. It only fattens the reseller of the day. And it punishes the buyer who tries to keep a device alive rather than replace it.

## Repairing stops being worth it

That is the environmental weak point of the measure. If the replacement part costs more with the tariff than a new low-end device, repair no longer makes economic sense. The laptop ends up in the bin ahead of time. The EU has spent years passing right-to-repair rules and extending the lifespan of electronics; an indiscriminate tariff on loose parts goes in the opposite direction.

The repair sector has been pointing this out: the availability and price of spare parts are the first barrier deciding whether a device gets fixed or thrown away.

## Who drove the revenue surge

There is a less technical, more consumer-behaviour reading. The volume that has put Chinese commerce in Brussels' crosshairs does not come from a handful of electronics enthusiasts. It comes from the mass ordering of clothing, accessories, kitchenware and home décor from platforms like **Temu** and **Shein**. That is the bulk of the packages and the bulk of the revenue.

Hence the proposal making the rounds: limit the tariff to clothing, kitchenware and household goods, and leave technical spare parts out. Most of the revenue would still come in, and the person who just wants to fix what they already own would no longer be taxed. It is a political decision, not a technical one, and it is worth remembering that any regulatory change hits the wallet: before buying, it makes sense to check the final cost including import duties.