11.5.2026
This is not really a problem with LCSC itself. It is more about how carrier customs-clearance fees can turn a reasonable order into an unpleasant surprise like it happened for me.
I bought a fairly “large” amount of electronic components from LCSC (for a hobby purposes). It was my first big order for multiple projects, and I also wanted to stock up on common parts like resistors, capacitors, connectors, LEDs, ICs, and so on.
The total cost of the order was about 13620 Kč. LCSC had free shipping for orders above 9080 Kč, so I did not expect shipping itself to be a problem.
I was expecting to pay VAT and possibly customs duty. That is completely fine, and I have no problem paying taxes or actual customs duty. What I did not know about was a FedEx customs-clearance fee listed on my invoice as “Additional items in the JSD”.
In my case, the additional JSD fee was calculated like this:
[number of customs items - 5] × 85 Kč
The first 5 customs items were included without this extra fee.
All the split costs:
| Item | Note | |
|---|---|---|
| Parts total | 13620 Kč | I had to take the advantage of free shipping ;) |
| VAT | 3300 Kč | Expected and completely fine |
| Customs duty | 5 Kč | Basically negligible |
| Additional items in the JSD | 2720 Kč | 32 charged customs lines × 85 Kč |
| Customs handling fee | 364 Kč | FedEx customs handling / clearance fee |
| Item | Note | |
|---|---|---|
| Parts total | 13620 Kč | Price for all the parts combined |
| Extra cost | 6389 Kč | VAT + duty + FedEx/JSD fees |
| Total | 20009 Kč | Total amount paid |
The funny part is that I basically did not pay any real customs duty. The customs duty itself was only 5 Kč, which is nothing, completely negligible. So the administrative fee for additional JSD items was huge compared to the actual duty…
The reason this happened is that the customs declaration contained many different customs items. It was not counted by package count, but by customs declaration lines.
Electronic components can be split by HS/TARIC code, type of component, and country of origin. So even though everything was bought from LCSC and shipped together in one shipment, the customs declaration ended up with many separate items.
In my case:
37 customs items total - 5 free items = 32 charged items
32 × 85 Kč = 2720 Kč
So the problem was not the tax and not the customs duty. The real surprise was the carrier’s customs administration fee.
DHL appears to have a similar system, but with different pricing. From what I found, DHL has 6 included/free lines and then charges around 130 Kč for each additional customs line/type. So for an order like mine, DHL would be even more expensive.
If you are buying many different types of components from LCSC or any other non-EU supplier, do not calculate only VAT (and customs duty). Check the carrier’s customs-clearance price list too, especially fees for multi-line customs declarations.
A shipment with dozens of different components can produce dozens of customs lines, even if it arrives in one box.
For small orders, this may not matter much. But For large mixed orders, buying from an EU distributor will be cheaper.
Otherwise, a cheap order of electronic components can become much more expensive than expected…