Lithuania's parliament has approved a law abolishing the current VAT exemption for low-cost shipments (imports) from third non-EU countries where the value is less than EUR 22 with effect from 1 July 2021. Abolishing the exemption is part of the implementation of new EU VAT e-commerce rules that were to be implemented from 1 January 2021 but extended to 1 July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For Lithuania in particular, abolishing the exemption is meant to level the playing field for domestic retailers, which are disadvantaged compared with online retailers from third countries due to the exemption.