It applies to each parcel, not an entire shipping container. Note that a parcel can contain multiple physical boxes for a single order.

The EU exemption does not exist in practice - if you ship something worth €20 from the U.K., you can expect to pay ~€50 in import vat, tariffs, customs inspection fees, and courier handling fees.

It’s only really worth importing stuff that’s well over the theoretical threshold, as you’re going to be paying the flat rate fees anyway.

The key point is that the 150€ limit is a tariff-enforcement limit, but VAT limits are set by the countries (and in recent years often much lower), so even if you don't pay tariffs on your parcel it might still go through the system for VAT purposes and incur the various fees around that.And privatized postal systems means that they can choose how large these fees are.

Right, but I’m telling you it’s normal to pay tariffs on small value items in the EU - China seem to get the carve-out, but anywhere else, you’re paying duties. I’m not confusing VAT and tariffs.

not in my experience. shrug Plenty stuff ordered from UK, US and Switzerland, only ever had to deal with VAT. (and most of the the time taking care picking sellers that do IOSS so that happens automatically)

EU exemptions are gone afaik. Previously we had exemptions to avoid VAT / customs (much lower de minimus) but they have been removed in recent years. The shipping / customs industry has not evolved to support the volume of low value goods.