TEYING BUYER GUIDE · UPDATED OCTOBER 1, 2026

DDP vs DAP to the EU: What Small Jewellery Brands Should Choose

DDP and DAP split EU import costs differently, and the flat €3 duty on low-value consignments has changed the arithmetic. This walks through who clears, who pays duty and import VAT, who is named as importer of record, and what to put in writing before the first order ships.

By Qiu Qiu, Founder and Design Lead at TEYING · October 1, 2026

The short answer: DAP makes the buyer the importer, DDP makes the seller

Under Incoterms 2020, DAP (Delivered At Place) means the seller delivers to a named place and the buyer clears the import, paying duty and import VAT. DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) means the seller does both. For a small jewellery brand the question is rarely about the unit price. It is whether the seller can clear cleanly in that country and whether the party paying import VAT can recover it.

General guidance only, not legal, tax or customs advice. Clearing requirements differ by member state and change with national budget law, so confirm your position with a customs broker or tax adviser before you quote DDP.

The two terms, side by side

DDP is the only term in Incoterms 2020 where the seller clears the import. DAP replaced the older DDU wording, so a supplier quoting DDU is describing DAP. The importer of record question itself, on both sides of the Atlantic, is worked through in DDP vs DDU: who is the importer of record.

Both terms name a place, and the place is not decoration. "DAP Hamburg" and "DAP your 3PL in Hamburg" are different obligations, and the named place belongs on the invoice as well as the quotation.

Why DDP costs more than the quotation suggests

Under DDP the seller is the importer of record in a country where it is usually not established. Three consequences follow, and each one has a price.

Import VAT recovery. Import VAT is recoverable by the importer of record only if that party is registered for VAT in the country of import and uses the goods for business. A non-EU seller normally meets neither condition, so the VAT it pays at the border becomes a cost inside the goods rather than a receivable. A DDP quote that looks like the DAP quote plus duty usually has an unrecoverable VAT line buried in it.

Registration and representation. Clearing in your own name generally requires an EORI number in the member state of entry, a customs broker that has accepted your account, and in some countries a fiscal representative or a local VAT registration. The rules vary by member state and they move. France removed the limited fiscal representation route for Regime 42 flows from 1 January 2026, which pushed non-EU sellers into full VAT registration, a reroute through another entry country, or DAP. As of October 2026 that reading is not applied uniformly by every adviser, so confirm the position for your entry country rather than assuming last year's arrangement still works.

Liability. Under direct representation the broker files in your name and you carry the customs debt. Under indirect representation or through a fiscal representative, that party shares or takes on the liability, which is why they charge for it. Either way the obligation is yours to manage, and a courier is not a compliance department.

Where the 2026 duty changes the arithmetic

For consignments up to €150 the EU now charges a flat €3 per item line, and for B2C sales up to €150 the import VAT is normally collected at checkout through IOSS instead of at the border. In that case the split is simple.

• Under DAP, the customer pays the €3 and any handling charge on delivery unless the seller has arranged otherwise.
• Under DDP, the seller absorbs the €3, the clearance fee and the handling charge.

A fixed charge is easier to price than a percentage, so DDP has become more predictable than it used to be on low-value parcels. It has not become free.

Above €150 the interim flat duty does not apply and the normal tariff for the code does. The old logic returns: whoever pays the duty also funds import VAT until it is recovered, and only a VAT-registered importer can recover it. The mechanics of that regime are covered in EU import duties and IOSS.

Choosing for a 60-piece order

Six questions decide it, and none of them is about the freight rate.

Read against those questions, the usual answers for a small brand are:

• Wholesale to a retail stockist: DAP, with the stockist as importer of record, because they are VAT-registered and already clear goods.
• Direct to consumer in small parcels: DDP with IOSS in place, or DAP with the landed charges stated clearly at checkout so the customer is not surprised at the door.
• Any market where you cannot clear in your own name: DAP, and say so in the quotation.

What TEYING quotes, and what to pin down

Freight is quoted per destination from the actual weight and volume of the packed order rather than from a flat table, because a 60-piece order of hollow brass hoops and a 60-piece order of stone-set silver pendants do not weigh or cube the same.

Who clears, and which documents are issued, is agreed per shipment. The export set covers the Certificate of Origin, Commercial Invoice, Packing List and material reports, and what a given destination needs differs by country and by order scope, so it is confirmed for the order rather than promised in advance.

Three things belong in writing before the first shipment leaves:

• The Incoterm and the named place, on the quotation and again on the purchase order. If the two disagree, the customs entry follows the invoice and the argument follows afterwards.
• The party named as importer of record, and the EORI or IOSS number that will be transmitted.
• Who pays the flat duty and any handling charge on a returned or refused parcel, which is the line most often left blank.

Send the reference, target quantity and destination market through the TEYING quote form and we will quote the freight for that destination and confirm which documents can be provided for the order.

FAQ

What is the main difference between DDP and DAP?

Under Incoterms 2020, DAP puts import clearance, customs duty and import VAT on the buyer, while DDP puts all three on the seller. DDP is the only term where the seller clears the import into the destination country, which is also why it is the term most often quoted incorrectly for cross-border e-commerce. In both cases the seller still books the main carriage and handles export clearance, so the difference sits entirely at the border.

Which is better for a small jewellery brand shipping to the EU?

For wholesale orders to a VAT-registered stockist, DAP is usually cleaner, because the stockist recovers the import VAT and already holds an EORI and a broker. For direct-to-consumer parcels, DDP avoids a customs invoice at the customer's door, but only if the seller can genuinely clear in its own name in that country. Whichever you choose, write the term and the named place into the quotation and the purchase order so the forwarder, the broker and the customer work from one version.

Can a Chinese factory pay the EU duty and VAT for me?

A factory can ship under DDP through a logistics partner, and that is a normal arrangement. But DDP makes whoever is importer of record responsible for the entry, and import VAT is only recoverable by a VAT-registered importer in the country of import. Ask for that party's name, and its country, on the invoice rather than settling for the letters DDP. Confirm it before the first shipment leaves, not after it arrives.

Does IOSS replace DDP?

No. IOSS handles import VAT for B2C consignments up to €150 by collecting it at checkout instead of at the border. Customs duty sits outside IOSS, and the flat €3 per item applies on top. IOSS decides who remits the VAT, not who clears the goods, and that second question is what the Incoterm answers.