EU Customs Rejected My Parcel Description: What ICS2 Refuses and What to Write Instead

The description on your customs declaration is now read by a machine before your parcel leaves for Europe. The EU's Import Control System 2 (ICS2) checks every parcel's details in advance, and it refuses descriptions that don't say what the goods actually are.

Most sellers know not to write "goods" or "gifts". What catches Australian stores out is that the EU's list of refused descriptions also includes ordinary category names: jewellery, clothing, accessories, toys, bags, shoes and souvenirs. If your store-wide customs description is one word long, it's probably on the list.

What ICS2 checks, and when

ICS2 is the EU's advance cargo information system. Before goods arrive, the carrier or postal operator files an entry summary declaration with the EU, so customs can assess the risk of each consignment before it lands.

For parcels sent by post, the European Commission's ICS2 operational guidance says the postal operator must file a minimum set of data "prior to loading of the goods on means of transport that will bring them into the EU". Your goods description is part of that data.

The same guidance lists error code 100, "Not satisfactory data quality", for filings where "the quality of the included data is low". It says there are "multiple rules defined on central level to ensure the provided data element values are detailed enough and contain meaningful information", and that a filing refused this way has to be re-submitted "with the required detailed information". A refused filing isn't processed until that happens. At best, that's time your parcel spends waiting.

One of those central rules is a published list of stop words: descriptions the system refuses. The Commission says they are "applied for all ICS2 countries and all filing types", and the current list took effect on 3 August 2026.

The words that fail

The goods description section of the list runs to about 250 entries. The Commission notes that "singular and plural forms are used interchangeably", so "Item" covers "items" and "Gifts" covers "gift". These are the entries most likely to turn up on an online store's parcels:

• Catch-alls: Goods, General goods, General merchandise, Merchandise, Products, Item, Articles, Things, Stuff, Various, Various goods, Several, Mixed, Misc, Miscellaneous, Others, Commodity, e-Commerce, Parcel, Sample
• Gifts and occasions: Gifts, Gift box, Birthday gifts, Souvenirs, Promotional, Decorations, Decorative items, Decorative crafts, Party accessories, Collected items
• Category names: Jewellery, Jewelry, Jewels, Accessories, Clothing, Clothes, Apparel, Garments, Wearing apparel, Uniform, Footwear, Shoes, Headwear, Caps, Bags, Toys, Handicraft, Handcraft, Artwork, Printed material, Textiles, Textile goods, Sporting goods, Household goods, Home goods, Electronics, Electronic goods, Tools, Parts, Spare parts, Food, Foodstuff, Cleaning products, Medicines
• A quality rather than a thing: Vegan, Fake, Consumer
• Pointers instead of descriptions: See invoice, See attached invoice, As per attached invoice, As ordered, Invoice, Company names
• Placeholders: N/A, Not available, Unknown, None, Test, xxx

The full list is linked in the sources at the end.

The list doesn't explain exactly how entries are matched. It also includes plain materials such as Steel, Glass and Metal, and a material is exactly what a good description needs, so read the entries as descriptions that say too little on their own, rather than words to avoid at any cost. The test is simple: could a customs officer picture the item from your description?

How to write a description that passes

Answer three questions: what is it made of, what is it, and, if the item type alone could mean several things, who or what is it for.

Material + item type + purpose, where it isn't obvious.

• Jewellery → Sterling silver hoop earrings
• Clothing → Women's cotton t-shirt
• Accessories → Leather phone case
• Gifts → Soy wax candle in glass jar
• Toys → Wooden stacking blocks for toddlers
• Bags → Canvas tote bag
• Headwear → Wool knitted beanie
• Handicraft → Hand-painted ceramic mug
• Decorations → Glass Christmas tree ornament
• Spare parts → Stainless steel watch strap
• Food → Roasted salted macadamia nuts
• Sample → Printed paper colour swatches

A few habits help:

• Describe the same thing your HS code describes. If the code says silver jewellery, the description should name the silver piece.
• Leave out brand names, product names and SKUs. "The Luna, 12mm" means nothing to customs. "Company names" is on the list for a reason.
• Put the important words first and keep it short. Some tools cut long descriptions. CSV Exporter Pro, for example, cuts at 40 characters, and every example above fits.

Use the same description for the same thing

Since 1 July 2026, Australia Post says parcels to the EU valued under EUR150 attract VAT plus a flat customs duty fee of EUR3 per item. Under the EU's definition, an item is goods in a parcel that share the same HS tariff code, item description and (where required) country of origin. Goods that differ on any of those count as separate items, and each one attracts its own EUR3.

So describe by type, not by listing. Three pairs of silver hoops described as "Luna hoops 12mm", "Luna hoops 16mm" and "Silver hoop earrings" differ in description, even with one HS code between them. Australia Post's example of a single item is five identical t-shirts on one line, all described "Cotton t-shirt".

Don't call it a gift, either

Australia Post has removed Gift as a reason for export for business customers in MyPost Business, Parcel Send and its APIs. In its words, "Goods sent by a business will not be considered a gift, even if meant as a freebie, prize or promotional item". A free sample to an influencer in Berlin is a commercial shipment, and it needs a real description like any other.

Setting descriptions in WooCommerce

WooCommerce has no customs description field. On WooCommerce 11.1, a product's Shipping tab holds weight, dimensions and shipping class, and nothing else. So the description lives in whatever builds your Australia Post manifest. There are three realistic set-ups.

1. One description for the whole store

If you sell one kind of thing, one description does the job. Tradewind CSV Exporter for Australia Post (free) takes a store-wide Item Description and writes it in the parcel's description column and on every customs content line.

It ships with the description blank on purpose, because no default is true for every store and the obvious defaults are all on the EU's list. International exports stop, with a link to the settings, until the Item Description, HS tariff code and Export Declaration Number are set. It also doesn't offer Gift as a reason for export.

Good for: a store that sells one kind of thing. Breaks at: the second kind, because one description then has to cover both.

2. A custom field and a few lines of code

Add an ordinary custom field to each product, such as customs_description (Screen Options > Custom Fields on the product screen), and have the export read it. With the free exporter, a developer can do that with its apcsv_content_line filter:

add_filter( 'apcsv_content_line', function ( $line, $item, $product ) {
    if ( ! $product ) {
        return $line;
    }
    // Variations keep the description on their parent product.
    $source = $product->get_parent_id() ? wc_get_product( $product->get_parent_id() ) : $product;
    $desc   = $source ? trim( (string) $source->get_meta( 'customs_description' ) ) : '';
    if ( '' !== $desc ) {
        $line['description'] = $desc;
    }
    return $line;
}, 10, 3 );

Each customs line then carries its product's own description. Keep the store-wide Item Description set as well: it's still the fallback for products without one, and the parcel's own description column still uses it.

Good for: stores with a developer on hand. Breaks at: anyone who'd rather not maintain code.

3. A description on every product, variation or category

CSV Exporter Pro, the paid add-on to the free exporter, adds a customs description field to each product's Shipping tab, to each variation, and to product categories, alongside HS code fields. The most specific value wins: the variation, then its product, then the product's categories, then the store-wide setting.

• Categories keep it consistent. Set "Sterling silver hoop earrings" once on the category and every pair in it goes out with the same description, which is what the EUR3 rule rewards.
• Product names as a fallback. By default, a product with no customs description is described by its product name. That works if your names say what the item is. If they're brand-led, like "The Luna", switch the fallback to the store-wide description in the settings, or set descriptions on your categories.
• A list of what's missing. If a product in an international export has no description and nothing to fall back on, Pro names it, with a link to fix it, and the international file waits until it's done.
• No store-wide description needed. When every product in the international orders has its own description, the export no longer waits for the store-wide one.

To fill in hundreds of products at once, use WooCommerce's product CSV export and import with Export custom meta? ticked. Pro's description is stored in the field _apcsvp_customs_description, so the column is Meta: _apcsvp_customs_description. Try two or three products first.

Checklist

• No description that's a single category word: jewellery, clothing, accessories, toys, bags, shoes
• Material, item type, and purpose where it isn't obvious
• No brand names, product names or SKUs
• The same description for goods that are the same thing
• Short, with the important words first
• Never Gift as the reason for export on a business shipment

For the HS code on the same customs line, see how to add HS codes to WooCommerce products. If MyPost Business refuses the file itself, see every MyPost Business CSV import error, explained, and for getting orders out of WooCommerce in the first place, how to get WooCommerce orders into Australia Post. Shipping to the US as well? See shipping to the US from Australia in 2026.

Sources: European Commission, DG Taxation and Customs Union, Introduction of Stop Words/Phrases in the Common Repository (the list in force from 3 August 2026), linked from the Commission's ICS2 page; European Commission, ICS2 Operational guidance, version 1.0; Australia Post, Global customs imports. Checked 30 September 2026. Rules change, so check those pages before relying on any detail here.

Not affiliated with Australia Post or the European Commission. "Australia Post" and "MyPost Business" are trademarks of the Australian Postal Corporation.