Product identifiers: what to declare from 1 November 2026

From 1 November 2026, customs declarations for goods sold online to EU customers must carry product identifiers. The codes are not new. Sellers use them to list products, and manufacturers use them to track stock. What is new is that customs want them too. The reason becomes clear in a 2025 report on border controls: customs check fewer than one item in ten thousand, and most goods checked in a 2025 control action failed. This article explains what the identifiers are, who assigns them, and how they go into the declaration. Where the Commission's guidance goes further than the law, we say so.