DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) and DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) are Incoterms — international shipping terms — that describe who is responsible for paying import duties and taxes when a parcel crosses a border.
Under DDP, the sender pays all duties, taxes, and customs fees upfront. The recipient receives the package with no surprise charges, no customs hold, no demand for payment at delivery. From the recipient's perspective, the international shipment behaves like a domestic one. DDP is the dominant choice for B2C e-commerce sending to consumer addresses — surprise duty bills are a major driver of refused deliveries.
Under DDU, the recipient pays duties and taxes on import — usually billed by the carrier or the destination country's postal service when the parcel arrives. DDU is cheaper at the time of sending, but the recipient is responsible for paying customs before the parcel is released. This often results in delivery delays (customs holds), additional handling fees, and abandoned shipments.
The right choice depends on the customer expectation. B2B shipments between businesses with importer-of-record relationships often use DDU because the recipient already has customs broker arrangements. B2C consumer shipments overwhelmingly use DDP because no one buying a pair of running shoes on Instagram wants a customs bill three weeks later.
L5 supports both DDP and DDU for international shipping. We auto-generate the commercial invoice, harmonized tariff codes (HS codes), and customs documentation from your shipment data. For high-volume international shippers, we can pre-clear known SKUs to reduce customs holds even further.