The UK left the EU customs union
A GB EORI, described on gov.uk, covers movement into and out of Great Britain. An EU EORI, described by Zoll for Germany, covers the EU instead. Neither substitutes for the other.
Definitions
What is an EORI number?
Economic Operators Registration and Identification number — a business's ID for customs, issued by the UK or the EU, not a personal document and not something a US shipper carries. It shows up in customs paperwork the same way a tax ID shows up on an invoice: identifying who the party is, not what the goods are. The two governments behind SMKlog's UK and Germany lanes each publish their own definition, quoted below.
gov.uk and German Zoll, quotedRead 2026-09-02Business ID, not a shipping form
An ID for the recipient, not the box
The number identifies the business receiving a shipment, not the shipment itself.
The UK's definition
gov.uk names the number and states directly who it is for and who it is not for.
| Question | What gov.uk states |
|---|---|
| What it stands for | Economic Operators Registration and Identification number |
| When it's needed | Moving goods between Great Britain and other countries, or between Great Britain and Northern Ireland or the Channel Islands |
| When it is not needed | For goods that are both not controlled goods and for personal use only |
Read plainly, the personal-use line is the one that matters most for an ordinary parcel: a private gift or purchase arriving at a home address, rather than stock a registered business is importing to resell, is the case gov.uk carves out of the requirement.
Germany's, and the EU's, definition
“An operator identification number that is valid throughout the European Union and replaces the German customs number.”Zoll (German Customs), EORI number, zoll.de, read 2026-09-02
Zoll adds that the number "must be quoted in order to identify the operators, in particular when lodging customs declarations and entry and exit summary declarations" — the same role gov.uk describes for the UK version, applied to the whole EU customs territory rather than to Great Britain alone. One EU EORI, once issued, is recognized by every member state's customs authority, which is the entire point of the "valid throughout the European Union" wording.
Two customs territories, two numbers
A business trading both ways needs both
A company that regularly imports commercial shipments into both the UK and Germany carries a GB number for one and an EU number for the other, not one number that reads across the border.
A private recipient usually needs neither
The personal-use exemption gov.uk states, and the business-operator framing Zoll uses, both point the same direction: an EORI is built around commercial importers, not individuals receiving mail.
Where SMKlog fits
SMKlog's checkout does not collect an EORI number on any of its four self-service lanes — Canada, the UK, Germany or Australia — because the shipper buying the label from the US is not the party either government issues one to. Whether the recipient needs one of their own is a question about who they are and what they are importing, not something the checkout form asks or the label depends on. A US-origin quote to any of the four lanes prices the same way regardless.
Where these definitions come from
- GOV.UK, Get an EORI number — the UK definition, when it applies and the personal-use exemption. Read 2026-09-02.
- Zoll (German Customs), EORI number — the EU-wide definition and its role in customs declarations. Read 2026-09-02.
EORI requirements are set by each customs authority and revised without notice. Treat the statements above as what each government published on the date shown; a business with a specific import question should confirm current requirements directly with HMRC or Zoll.
EORI questions
What does EORI stand for?
Economic Operators Registration and Identification number. The UK government names it exactly that on its own EORI page, and the number's job is to identify a business to customs authorities the way a tax ID identifies it to a revenue agency.
Do I need one to send a parcel from the US?
No. An EORI identifies a business established in, or trading into, the UK or EU customs territory. A US-based sender buying a shipping label is not the party a UK or German EORI gets issued to, and SMKlog's checkout does not ask for one on any lane.
Does a UK EORI work in Germany, or do I need a separate one?
Separate. gov.uk's own EORI page ties a GB number to moving goods between Great Britain and other countries; Germany's customs authority, Zoll, describes its number as "valid throughout the European Union." The UK left that customs union, so a business trading with both needs a UK number and an EU one, not a single number covering both.
Does a private individual receiving a gift need an EORI?
Generally not. gov.uk states an EORI is not required for goods that are both not controlled and for personal use only — the ordinary case for a gift or a personal purchase arriving by post, as opposed to a commercial import a business is bringing in under its own name.
Who actually needs one on a US-to-Germany or US-to-UK shipment?
The business on the receiving end, if the shipment is a commercial import that business is bringing in under its own name. The number belongs to the party lodging the import declaration at the destination, not to the US shipper paying for postage.