CBAM Penalties and Enforcement: €100 per Tonne, €300-500 per Tonne and Goods Held at the Border

Three layers of enforcement

CBAM enforcement is not a single fine. Three distinct layers address three different behaviours.

1. Certificate shortfall

Where the certificates surrendered fall short of the declared embedded emissions — or are not surrendered at all — a penalty of €100 applies for each tonne of CO₂ equivalent missing. The amount is indexed annually to EU inflation.

The essential feature of this penalty is that paying it does not extinguish the surrender obligation. It is not an alternative payment route; the outstanding certificates must still be surrendered. With certificates priced around €75, the combined exposure exceeds twice the underlying liability.

2. Importing without authorisation

Companies that exceed the cumulative 50-tonne threshold without holding authorised CBAM declarant status face a substantially heavier penalty: €300 to €500 per tonne of embedded emissions, three to five times the standard rate.

The gap is deliberate. A certificate shortfall is a calculable non-compliance that can be made good. Importing without authorisation bypasses the control gate of the system entirely, and the Regulation prices it to deter.

3. Administrative measures

Beyond monetary penalties there are two administrative consequences. Goods belonging to an importer without declarant status cannot be released for free circulation — a check performed automatically, since customs systems and the CBAM Registry are integrated. And a competent authority can suspend or revoke the status where obligations are not met, which affects all subsequent imports.

How the risk reaches suppliers

Goods held at the border

The most immediate consequence. If the buyer's status is missing or suspended, the consignment cannot clear. Where the incoterm is DDP, storage, demurrage and delay costs fall on the seller. Confirming the customer's authorisation status has become a standard commercial check. We cover the status in authorised CBAM declarant status.

Contractual liability for incorrect data

The importer bases its declaration on emissions data received from the producer. If the data is wrong, the penalty falls on the importer, but a recourse claim against the producer follows where the error originated upstream. The Regulation does not allocate that liability; it is left to the contract. Limiting liability to verified data, and setting out its scope in writing, therefore matters. We cover the contractual side in supplier data collection.

Loss of the commercial relationship

An importer that has experienced non-compliance traced to its supply base tends to change suppliers. Suppliers that cannot provide data, or provide it late, are removed from portfolios on penalty-risk grounds.

Common non-compliance scenarios

Scenario	Consequence	Mitigation
Verification report not ready by the declaration date	Actual values unusable; default values apply	Contract the verifier early; secure a site visit slot
Precursor data not received from supplier	Default value plus mark-up for that precursor	Data clause in supply contracts
Buyer has not applied for authorisation	Consignment held at the border	Confirm status before accepting the order
Different figures sent to different customers	Finding at verification or audit	Share from a single source via the CBAM Registry
Prior-year data reused	Declaration invalid	Separate calculation and verification per period

Why treating the penalty as a cost line does not work

In some compliance regimes a penalty becomes an alternative to compliance: pay and move on. That calculation does not hold under CBAM, because:

• the penalty does not remove the surrender obligation, so the two costs stack;
• without authorisation the goods do not clear, so the trade itself stops; and
• suspension of status affects all subsequent imports.

The cost of non-compliance under CBAM is therefore not a predictable fine but an interruption of trade.

Frequently asked questions

Can a non-EU producer be fined by the EU?

No. Enforcement applies to the declarant established in the EU. Risk reaches producers through commercial and contractual channels.

Is the €100 figure fixed?

It is indexed annually to the EU inflation rate.

Is late declaration penalised?

Failure to submit a declaration and shortfalls in surrender are both subject to sanction, and competent authorities can apply administrative measures.

Is there penalty exposure during 2026?

Certificate-related penalties do not arise in 2026, since surrender begins in 2027. Exposure to the unauthorised-import penalty applies throughout 2026.

Sources

• European Commission — CBAM definitive regime
• European Commission — CBAM Registry

We work on assessing compliance risk across EU customer portfolios and preparing emissions data on time, under our CBAM accounting and reporting service. You can contact us with your questions.