Entry · Oct 6, 2026

The price you see is the price at your door

A lamp from overseas should arrive with nothing to pay at the door. Here is what "duties paid" means, why it matters more since 2025, and where its limits are.

A lamp is bought for one hour of the day: the hour when the room goes quiet and the light turns warm. It should not begin its life in your home with a bill at the door.

Step into Beacon. Be held by the atmosphere first, then find yourself in it.

The short answer. "Duties paid", or DDP (Delivered Duty Paid), means the seller pays the import duty, the import taxes and the customs clearance before the parcel reaches you. Nothing is collected at your door. Every Beacon order ships this way.

What "duties paid" means

DDP is one of the eleven Incoterms rules published by the International Chamber of Commerce. Under it, the seller carries the goods all the way to the named address, cleared for import, and pays the duties and taxes on both sides of the border (Maersk, Delivered Duty Paid). It is the term that puts the most work on the seller and the least on the buyer.

The opposite arrangement is duties unpaid (often written DAP or DDU). The parcel travels, then waits at customs until someone settles the import charges. That someone is the buyer.

Why it matters more since 2025

Until August 2025, a parcel worth $800 or less could enter the United States without duty. That rule, called de minimis, was suspended for goods from all countries from 29 August 2025: low-value goods now owe "all applicable duties, taxes, and fees" (U.S. Customs and Border Protection fact sheet). In June 2026 Customs made the suspension indefinite (Federal Register, 24 June 2026).

So a lamp from overseas now owes duty at the border whatever it costs. The only question is who pays it, and when you find out.

Duties paid or duties unpaid: what changes for you

	Duties paid (DDP)	Duties unpaid (DAP / DDU)
Who pays the import duty and taxes	The seller	You
When you learn the amount	Before you buy: it is inside the price	When the parcel is held, after you have paid for it
Carrier handling fees for paying the duty	None to you	Possible. UPS, for one, lists a "Disbursement Fee" among its import fees (UPS, Understanding Import Fees)
What happens at the door	The parcel is handed over	The parcel waits until the charges are paid

What our price includes

The lamp.
Shipping to your door.
Import duty, import taxes and customs clearance. "All orders ship DDP (Delivered Duty Paid). Duties and import taxes are included, so there is nothing extra to pay on delivery" (our shipping policy).
A video of your exact lamp before it leaves us. It ships only after you say yes.
The plug for your country, fitted before it ships.

What it does not include

We name the limits too.

Time. In-stock pieces leave us 2 to 7 business days after you approve the video. Made-to-order lamps take 14 to 25 days to make first. Delivery is then typically 7 to 14 business days (shipping policy). Our last four orders, placed in July and August 2026, reached the door 14 to 17 days after the order was placed.
Quiet tracking. In those same orders the tracking showed no movement for 6 to 11 days while the parcel crossed from our side to the carrier's. The lamp is moving; the screen is not.
A change of mind. You can return an order within 14 days of delivery. You pay the return shipping to our warehouse, and the refund is the price of the item: the original shipping and duties are not refunded (refund policy). A lamp that arrives damaged or wrong is different: once we approve the claim, you choose a replacement or a full refund, shipping included.