Google says Asian advertisers spending less due to Europe's customs changes

Google has revealed some of its Asian customers – almost certainly Chinese e-tailers – are buying fewer ads.

Speaking on Alphabet’s Q3 earnings call last week, chief business officer Philipp Schindler addressed the slowdown in ad sales growth with the following remark: “In retail, some of our APAC advertisers were impacted by the EU eliminating its de minimis exemption.”

That’s a reference to the European Union’s changes to import duties, which saw the bloc introduce a temporary €3 customs duty for every consignment valued at under €150 imported from outside the EU.

The EU previously operated the de minimis exemption that Schindler referred to, meaning it collected no import duty on almost 5.9 billion low-value items shipped to the continent in 2025 alone. The new regime aims to protect European retailers from cheap imports.

A great many of those items came from Chinese e-tail giants – the likes of Temu, Shein, and Alibaba – who are thought to account for …