Beware ‘customs advance’ on deliveries to France

Every few months, I get a batch of books printed in the UK and sent to my home address in France.

Since Brexit, I have become used to the ‘reverse charge mechanism’, ie. paying customs charges (VAT) on my deliveries.

So, when UPS finally delivered a box of books after messing me around for two weeks, I expected to pay tax in the order of €30, as on previous occasions. 

This time, however, the driver said I could only have my package if I handed over €50.

Looking at the receipt later, I discovered something odd. 

More than a third of the total – 35% (€17.50 before tax) – was for frais de dossier. This sounded like a charge for the processing of paperwork in addition to the £19.56 I had paid my supplier in the UK for transport.

Baffled, I contacted UPS France. 

Their customer service representative, Ghassen Ouni, told me that “in cases where UPS advances the duties, taxes, and other government-imposed fees on behalf of the customer, the customer will be charged fees based on the intrinsic value of the shipped goods and the amount advanced”.

In other words, UPS had lent me money to pay French customs and expected to be reimbursed with interest at a rate of 3.05%, according to their T&Cs, for one week’s ‘advance’. It had cost me €17.50 to borrow €29. 

I was referred to the UPS Service Guide for more information. 

Buried in the smallest of print on page 24 is a rationale for charging frais sur avances, to “make customs clearance easier”. 

In return for this fee, the firm endeavours to “get your shipments across borders quickly  and on time. 

“Our international experience and knowledge helps you with local requirements and avoid customs delays.”

What, you might ask, could be complicated about getting a box of books from Dover to Calais? Do they pay customs officials to work more quickly? How do they speed up an already speedy process? 

Why the hidden charges?

There are problems here. 

For a start, if something is labelled as one thing in the service guide and something else on the invoice, how can I know what I am paying for? This would seem to fall foul of article L441-9 of the Code de Commerce, which says that an invoice must be precise in the nature of the service provided.

Secondly, business requires trust and a reasonable delay in reimbursement. If I buy a map for my work and charge it to a publisher a month later, I do not add interest.

Thirdly, who authorised this transaction? I did not sign a contract with UPS asking them to lend me money. The firm that sent the books agreed only to DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) – that I would pay the import taxes, not them. 

It was not aware there would be a supplementary charge unilaterally imposed. 

The French customs service, La Direction Générale des Douanes et Droits Indirects, knows about this grey practice. 

Its only worry is that services be called by their proper names and that customers are not misled into believing that frais supplémentaires/de dossier/des avances/de douane go to the state, when all they do is swell the profits of a private company. 

There is a wider significance. This practice makes UK-to-EU delivery fees unpredictable, discouraging cross-border business. 

My favourite homebrewing supplies  firm, for example, refuses to send me packages because it cannot promise how much I will have to pay at the door.

As if UPS had not proved incompetent enough, a few days after paying for the delivery, I received a facture impayée (unpaid bill demand). 

When I queried this, I was told it was generated “prior to the delivery and payment”. 

In a final email, UPS pointed out that I could have refused the package if I was so upset about the surcharge. 

True, but if that is a delivery company’s last word in ‘customer care’, I must be living on another planet.