“Chinese webshops facilitate billion-euro VAT fraud”

Chinese webshops play a key role in large-scale VAT fraud, which cost the European Union more than thirteen billion euros last year. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office points to a lack of control capacity.

Huge differences

In 2024, the EU lost 13.15 billion euros in undeclared VAT revenue, according to the recently published annual report of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO). More than half of that damage is done to Italy and Germany (with 4.65 billion and 3.89 billion respectively). Austria (735 million) and Belgium (611 million) are third and fourth in the list of missed VAT revenue, while European giants like France and Spain seem very underrepresented with 276 million and 227 million in damages. Estonia, on the other hand, reported no VAT damage at all.