EPPO probing over 3,600 customs‑fraud cases at the end of 2025, with damages totaling 67 billion euros

Brussels – At the end of 2025, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO),  the European Union body that has been investigating and prosecuting crimes affecting the EU’s financial interests since 2017, was investigating 3,602 cases, a 35 per cent increase compared to 2024. The same percentage increase was recorded in the number of new investigations launched last year (2,030 new cases opened out of 6,966 reports of offences). These are the initial findings of the report published today (2 March) by the Luxembourg-based institution, which reviews the results of judicial activity over the past year. 

The increase in the number of suspected fraud cases is accompanied by a similar rise in potential damage to the budgets of the EU and the 27 Member States: the report estimates approximately 67 billion euros “lost” in 2025, a figure that has essentially tripled from 24.8 billion in 2024. Although the so-called expenditure fraud, relating to the illegal and improper use of EU funds, subsidies, and aid, is more numerous in terms of quantity (68% of investigations opened in 2025), it “only” accounts for 27% (18.67 billion euros) of the total estimated financial losses. Customs fraud has a much greater impact, directly affecting the EU budget’s sources of revenue: partial or total VAT evasion and other forms of duties on imports from non-EU countries led to the loss of around 45 billion euros from public coffers in 2025, a figure that is equal to more than two-thirds of the total estimated damage. In the words of Laura Kövesi, Chief Prosecutor of the EPPO, this is “a criminal industry that has been ignored or tolerated for too long.”

 Customs fraud is a business model that is undergoing profound change. According to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office report, “conventional criminal activities focusing on illegal goods
(counterfeited goods, currency counterfeiting, drugs, substandard
goods, weapons, etc.), or on criminal exploitation of vulnerable
people (exploitation of labour, prostitution, human trafficking) are
increasingly combined with, or even replaced by, criminal activities
related to the trading of legal goods, carried out using criminal
modalities that cause massive damage to the financial interests of
both the EU and its Member States.” In what appears to be the new frontier of smuggling, China plays a key role as one of the EU’s leading suppliers of low-cost goods. The report describes actual “Chinese criminal networks” that facilitate the importation of goods from Beijing with a falsely low declared value to pay less (or no) VAT and other customs duties.  

Turning to the figures relating to the EPPO’s court activity, according to the report, in 2025 the conviction rate was 95 per cent, with a 34 per cent increase in indictments compared to 2024 (275 indictments in total). The judges of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office issued freezing orders totaling 1.13 billion euros, and the actual value of assets frozen during the year amounted to 288.93 million. Of particular significance is the data relating to the “sources” of new reports of offences received by the Luxembourg court: while the number of reports from EU institutions, bodies, or agencies remains low (143), the number of reports of alleged offences submitted by private citizens (4,629) and national authorities (143) has increased by 6 per cent compared to a year ago. According to the EPPO, this trend “shows that the level of detection of fraud affecting the financial interests of the EU is improving and that the public awareness of the EPPO, and trust in its work, continue to grow.”

“I am convinced that our citizens can be proud of these achievements. We did our best to show that in the European Union, justice serves its citizens, that it is tangible, and that the law must be equal for everyone,” Kövesi said.