Parliament's CBAM amendments on marketplaces and the 50-tonne limit

Parliament's CBAM amendments of 15 September 2026 would make online marketplaces carry CBAM obligations as importers. They would also target the splitting of imports to stay under the 50-tonne threshold. Parliament described its own vote as "closing the loopholes". Two of the loopholes it meant differ from what the phrase usually suggests.

One of them reaches businesses that have never thought of themselves as importers.

How the marketplace loophole works

Extending CBAM to downstream goods means covering products that reach final consumers. This creates a problem that the original mechanism never faced. A consumer good bought from an EU importer would carry CBAM. The same good, shipped directly to the same consumer by a third-country seller through an online marketplace, would not.

The adopted text names this problem directly. It records a risk of distortion between EU operators importing consumer goods and "online platforms facilitating distance sales of the same goods from third countries, which would not be subject to equivalent obligations". It calls this "a loophole that is liable to undermine both fair competition and the environmental integrity of the mechanism."

The proposed fix borrows a designation from customs law. The amendments reason from online platforms "already designated as importers for distance sales under the reformed Union Customs Code". In that reform, the designation applies whether they act in their own name or through an appointed representative. That customs reform is not yet adopted. The amendment's reference to it still reads "[reference to be added after adoption cf. COM(2023) 258 final]".

The amendment carries the designation across. A platform that is the importer for customs purposes would therefore carry the CBAM obligation in the same capacity.

Splitting consignments to stay under 50 tonnes

The CBAM de minimis exemption is real. Under Article 2a, an importer who expects to stay under 50 tonnes of covered goods in a calendar year is outside the obligation. A threshold invites people to arrange their business around it.

The amendments name that arrangement. They target the deliberate "splitting of transactions or other circumvention strategies aimed at falling below the de minimis threshold established in Article 2a". They also empower competent authorities to require information accordingly. A recital lists the behaviours the drafters have in mind:

• misclassification of goods;
• under-declaration of quantities;
• failure to submit declarations;
• "the misapplication of de minimis thresholds".

Read this carefully, because the honest case and the abusive case look similar on paper. Being under the threshold is a legitimate steady state. Many importers simply do not import fifty tonnes. The amendments target something else: arranging a business to look like such an importer when it is not. One example is splitting one commercial flow across entities, periods or consignments to keep every part small.

An honest importer near the line should make the reason visible in its own records. Nobody has alleged anything, but evidence separates "we buy this much" from "we arranged to look like we buy this much". That evidence is ordinary commercial documentation, which you either kept or did not.

What "closing loopholes" did not mean

The phrase carries a lot of weight in the coverage, so two clarifications follow.

A 5-tonne figure for aluminium products, not settled. The amendments mainly address the misuse of the 50-tonne de minimis. For aluminium products, they would also set the Article 2a threshold at 5 tonnes of net mass, in Annex VII point 1a (Amendments 97, 113 and 133). The adopted text cross-refers to that point inconsistently, so the 5-tonne figure is not settled.

The fund is one recital, and it is conditional. Reporting has described Parliament as backing a fund for the low-carbon transition. The adopted text contains a recital amendment that mentions a Temporary Decarbonisation Fund. The recital says the fund "could provide international climate finance and support Union industries at residual risk of carbon leakageCarbon leakageThe relocation of production — and its emissions — outside the EU to avoid EU carbon costs; the risk CBAM exists to prevent by pricing imports' embedded emissions on a par with EU production.". It sits in a recital, not in an operative article, and it establishes nothing. Recitals explain intent, and they do not create instruments.

What it means for importers

If you are an EU importer with a normal supply chain, nothing changes. This is a negotiating position about a future regime, and your 2026 obligations are unchanged.

Two groups should look closer: sellers who reach the EU through a marketplace, and importers who sit near the 50-tonne line. Authorities do not scrutinise the threshold. They scrutinise the arrangement.

What to do

• If you sell into the EU through a marketplace, find out who is named as importer on the customs declarations for your goods. Under these amendments, that importer would carry the CBAM obligation.
• If you sit near the 50-tonne line, check that your own records explain why.
• Otherwise, change nothing now and keep your 2026 compliance on the current rules.

Stuck on this in your own import data? Write to us and we will look at it with you.

This article explains a Parliament negotiating position. It is not legal, tax or customs advice.