Check your contents against carrier and destination rules before you book — prohibited items are seized, not returned.
Whether an item can travel is decided twice. First by the carrier, which maintains its own prohibited and restricted list covering anything dangerous to handle or fly. Second by the destination country, whose customs authority decides what may legally be imported. An item can be perfectly acceptable to DHL and still be seized at the border — or legal at the border and refused by the carrier.
Getting this wrong is expensive in a way that other shipping mistakes are not. A prohibited item is typically confiscated and destroyed, not returned to sender, and the shipping charge is not refunded. Insurance does not cover items that were never eligible to be shipped. Five minutes of checking before you book is the cheapest step in the whole process.
No carrier on any service will knowingly accept the following.
These can usually be sent, but only on the right service, with the right paperwork, or within stated limits.
| Item | The condition that applies |
|---|---|
| Lithium batteries | Batteries installed in a device are generally acceptable; loose spare batteries and power banks are heavily restricted and often air-prohibited. Declare them. |
| Perfume and aerosols | Alcohol-based and pressurised products are classed as dangerous goods. Usually road-only services, with quantity limits per parcel. |
| Alcohol and wine | Permitted to many destinations on specific services, but subject to excise duty, age verification and outright bans in some countries. |
| Food and perishables | Non-perishable, commercially sealed food travels widely. Meat, dairy and fresh produce are banned into most non-EU countries. |
| Medicines and pharmaceuticals | Prescription medicines usually need documentation, and many countries prohibit personal imports entirely. Check the destination first. |
| Jewellery and high-value items | Accepted by most carriers but usually capped for insurance purposes. Declare full value and expect a coverage limit. |
| Electronics with built-in batteries | Phones, laptops and e-bikes need correct dangerous-goods declaration. E-bike and scooter batteries are frequently refused outright. |
| Plants, seeds and soil | Subject to phytosanitary controls almost everywhere. Certificates are usually mandatory. |
Sending within the European Union means goods move in free circulation: no customs declaration, no duty, and the shortest prohibited list you will encounter. Once a parcel crosses an EU external border, a second layer of rules applies, and it varies enormously by country.
Some examples of how much the destination matters: alcohol cannot be imported by private individuals into the UAE and several other countries; used clothing faces import restrictions in a number of African markets; drones and satellite equipment are controlled in India and parts of the Middle East; and food of animal origin is banned into the United States, Australia and New Zealand without licensing.
The safest working assumption is that anything living, edible, flammable, pressurised, battery-powered, alcoholic, medicinal or valuable needs checking against the specific destination before you book — not after.
Including anything used as padding. A bottle of perfume tucked into a box of clothes changes the classification of the entire parcel.
Each carrier publishes its own. Our per-carrier prohibited item guides cover DHL, UPS, FedEx, DPD and GLS.
Customs rules are set nationally. The country guide for your destination sets out the restrictions that apply on arrival.
If something is restricted rather than prohibited, declaring it correctly is what keeps it moving. Concealing it is what gets the whole parcel seized.
A question before booking costs nothing. A seizure costs the item, the shipping charge and the time.
Prohibited items are confiscated and usually destroyed. They are not returned to the sender.
Shipping charges are not refunded on a seized parcel, and insurance will not pay out on an item that was never eligible.
One prohibited item can cause the entire parcel to be held, including the compliant contents around it.
Undeclared dangerous goods can result in fines levied against the sender, not just the loss of the goods.
Repeated or deliberate mis-declaration can lead a carrier to refuse future shipments from the same account.
A parcel stopped at customs for a restricted item can sit in a bonded warehouse accruing storage charges until it is resolved or destroyed.
Prohibited means the item cannot travel at all on any service — there is no paperwork that makes it acceptable. Restricted means it can travel, but only on certain services, within stated limits, or with additional documentation. Restricted items are usually fine when declared correctly and seized when they are not.
Loose lithium batteries and power banks are among the most heavily restricted items in the network and are prohibited on most air services. A battery installed inside the device it powers is treated far more leniently. If you must send a battery, declare it — an undeclared one is a dangerous-goods breach, not just a packing error.
Usually yes, but only on road services and within per-parcel quantity limits, because alcohol-based fragrance is classed as a flammable liquid. It cannot go by air on standard services. Check the specific carrier's limits before booking.
The parcel is held rather than immediately destroyed. Customs will normally request documentation or additional duty. If the requirement is met the parcel continues; if it cannot be met, the goods are returned at your cost or destroyed. Storage charges may accrue while it sits.
Considerably. Goods within the EU move in free circulation, so there is no customs declaration and no duty, and the only list you need to check is the carrier's own. Dangerous goods rules still apply in full — an aerosol is still an aerosol whether it is going to Germany or Japan.
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