Increased customs value checks on clothing & shoes

14 August 2025

As was the case last year, Customs will be carrying out additional checks during this period. These checks are aimed at ensuring the accuracy of the customs value and directly affect everyone who imports clothing and shoes.

Upon request from the European Commission

The European Commission has (once again) identified irregularities with regard to the customs value of clothing and shoes. As a result, all Member States, represented in the Netherlands by Customs, have been instructed to subject import shipments to increased checks.

We understand better than anyone that this is far from ideal for your planning, especially given the current peak season that many of you, and we ourselves, are currently experiencing. We would like to give you two tips to help speed up the entire process.

Tips for preparation

Customs is requesting additional information. You can prepare for this by taking the following precautions:

1. Ensure that you can provide a complete bank statement that matches the supplier’s invoice.
2. Include the invoice number in the payment description.

We would like to point out that this may take longer than you are used to. At present, the National Value Team of Customs has a delay of approximately one week in responding to and processing all requests. We ask for your understanding in this matter.

Additional information & questions

For additional information, please refer to this article, which we published last year in response to similar customs inspections. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.