News flash!The EU investigates 4,000 batches of Chinese goods: the amount involved exceeds 1.1 billi
- Author:Maintenance network
- Source:Maintenance network
- Release Date:2026-04-21
Recently, the European Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) disclosed an ongoing cross-border trade investigation, which has attracted industry attention.
This case is codenamed "Podlimit". Investigators have currently launched multiple search operations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, involving 9 companies.According to preliminary information disclosed, the case focuses on the declaration and tax compliance issues of textiles, footwear and e-commerce products when entering the EU.
From a time perspective, this is not a recent business, but a back-check of approximately 4,000 shipments from June 2017 to December 2018.
According to EPPO estimates:
Involving tariffs of approximately 24.1 million euros
Unpaid VAT of approximately €113 million
A total of approximately 137.4 million euros (approximately RMB 1.1 billion).
Judging from the investigation details released so far, the problem mainly focuses on the use of a common mechanism within the EU-"Customs Procedure 42" (CP42).
The mechanism itself is designed to facilitate intra-EU trade:
If the goods enter one member country and will continue to flow to another member country, the value-added tax (VAT) on the import link can be deferred and the tax declaration can be completed in the final consumer country.
However, in actual operations, regulatory agencies found that some companies had inconsistencies in their declaration routes, cargo values, and transaction structures.
If we only look at this case, it is more like a typical cross-border compliance investigation.But placed in a larger context, we can see a continuing trend in the EU in related fields in recent years.For example, in the 2025 operation, the EU seized a large number of containers suspected of abnormal declarations at the Port of Piraeus. The types of goods involved were also mainly textiles, footwear and e-commerce goods.
What these actions have in common is:
Supervision is gradually shifting from single-point verification to an overall review of the trade chain.
From an industry perspective, the signals released by such cases are relatively clear:
As supervision continues to strengthen, cross-border trade is gradually shifting from "efficiency first" to "equal emphasis on efficiency and compliance."
For enterprises, declaration accuracy, process standardization and link transparency will become increasingly important.
Overall, this case is more like a centralized review of cross-border trade compliance by the EU within the existing institutional framework.
The follow-up progress remains to be further disclosed, but what is certain is that supervision around declaration authenticity and tax compliance is becoming the norm.
This case is codenamed "Podlimit". Investigators have currently launched multiple search operations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, involving 9 companies.According to preliminary information disclosed, the case focuses on the declaration and tax compliance issues of textiles, footwear and e-commerce products when entering the EU.
From a time perspective, this is not a recent business, but a back-check of approximately 4,000 shipments from June 2017 to December 2018.
According to EPPO estimates:
Involving tariffs of approximately 24.1 million euros
Unpaid VAT of approximately €113 million
A total of approximately 137.4 million euros (approximately RMB 1.1 billion).
Judging from the investigation details released so far, the problem mainly focuses on the use of a common mechanism within the EU-"Customs Procedure 42" (CP42).
The mechanism itself is designed to facilitate intra-EU trade:
If the goods enter one member country and will continue to flow to another member country, the value-added tax (VAT) on the import link can be deferred and the tax declaration can be completed in the final consumer country.
However, in actual operations, regulatory agencies found that some companies had inconsistencies in their declaration routes, cargo values, and transaction structures.
If we only look at this case, it is more like a typical cross-border compliance investigation.But placed in a larger context, we can see a continuing trend in the EU in related fields in recent years.For example, in the 2025 operation, the EU seized a large number of containers suspected of abnormal declarations at the Port of Piraeus. The types of goods involved were also mainly textiles, footwear and e-commerce goods.
What these actions have in common is:
Supervision is gradually shifting from single-point verification to an overall review of the trade chain.
From an industry perspective, the signals released by such cases are relatively clear:
As supervision continues to strengthen, cross-border trade is gradually shifting from "efficiency first" to "equal emphasis on efficiency and compliance."
For enterprises, declaration accuracy, process standardization and link transparency will become increasingly important.
Overall, this case is more like a centralized review of cross-border trade compliance by the EU within the existing institutional framework.
The follow-up progress remains to be further disclosed, but what is certain is that supervision around declaration authenticity and tax compliance is becoming the norm.