If you buy alcohol, batteries, chocolate, liquorice, coffee, tea, almonds and tobacco products online from a seller in e.g. Germany, you must pay excise duties. This means that you will have to pay more than the price stated on the seller’s website.
If you arrange to have the products transported to your address yourself, you must also ensure that the excise duties are paid.
The website of the Danish tax authorities, SKAT, provides information about how you should inform SKAT about your purchases. You will also find a list of the products to which excise duties apply.
You have a cancellation right
As a main rule, you have a 14-day cooling-off period when you buy products online. A number of products, such as perishable food products, are exempted from the cancellation right. So you will be entitled to cancel food purchases only if you have agreed this with the seller.
Rules for cross-border shopping
You do not have to pay excise duties on products that you buy yourself in e.g. Sweden or Germany. But for certain types of products there are limits on the quantities that you may bring into Denmark.
At SKAT’s website you can find the rules that apply when you bring products into Denmark from another EU member state.
Getting help in connection with a complaint
If you have problems with a cross-border purchase and you cannot find a solution with the seller, you can complain to European Consumer Centre Denmark.
Advice
- Check whether excise duties must be paid on the products you want to buy
- Contact SKAT if you are not sure whether you have to pay excise duties
