Shopping

Within the EU

There are no limits on what you can buy and take with you when you travel between EU countries, as long as it is for personal use and not for resale. Taxes (VAT and excise duties) are included in the price you pay and no further payment of tax can be due in any other EU country.

Tobacco and alcohol

To determine whether tobacco and alcohol are for personal use, each country can set guide levels. If you carry a larger quantity of these goods, you may be questioned to check that you have no commercial intent. The guide levels may not be lower than:

• 800 cigarettes
• 400 cigarillos
• 200 cigars
• 1 kg of tobacco
• 10 litres of spirits
• 20 litres of fortified wine (such as port or sherry)
• 90 litres of wine (of which, a maximum of 60 litres of sparkling wine)
• 110 litres of beer.

Food

There are no general restrictions on carrying meat or dairy products when travelling within the EU.

Coming into the EU

If you enter the EU from a non-EU country, you can bring with you goods free of VAT and excise duties for personal use within the limits set out below. The same applies if you come from the Canary Islands, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar or other territories where EU rules on VAT and excise duties do not apply.

Alcoholic drinks

• 1 litre of spirits over 22 % vol. or 2 litres of fortified or sparkling wine
• 4 litres of still wine
• 16 litres of beer

Tobacco products

Each EU country chooses whether to apply the higher or the lower limits to travellers coming from outside the EU. If it applies the lower limits it may apply them only to land and sea travellers (Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Sweden) or to all travellers (Estonia and Romania).

higher limit
200 cigarettes
or 100 cigarillos
or 50 cigars
or 250 g tobacco

lower limit
40 cigarettes
or 20 cigarillos
or 10 cigars
or 50 g tobacco

Other goods including perfume

If you are travelling by air and sea you may bring in other goods with a value of not more than €430 and not more than €300 if travelling by land and inland waterway. Some EU countries apply a lower limit for travellers under 15 but it may not be lower than €150.

Food

It is illegal to bring back any meat or dairy products, even in small quantities, when coming back home from most countries outside the EU. The only exceptions are Andorra, Faeroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, San Marino and Switzerland. This is to protect EU livestock from animal diseases.