# What is the penalty if an importer does not surrender enough CBAM certificates or files a late declaration?

Canonical: https://senseible.earth/answers/cbam-penalty-for-not-surrendering-certificates

Under Article 26 of the CBAM Regulation, an authorised declarant who does not surrender enough certificates pays a penalty per missing certificate equal to the EU ETS excess emissions penalty, which started at EUR 100 per tonne and is indexed to inflation. Paying the penalty does not cancel the duty to surrender the missing certificates.

## Not surrendering enough certificates

The penalty is set by reference to Article 16(3) of the EU ETS Directive 2003/87/EC: EUR 100 per tonne, increased in line with the European index of consumer prices. It applies to each certificate the declarant should have surrendered and did not. The declarant must still buy and surrender those certificates afterwards, so the shortfall costs the penalty plus the certificate price.

## Importing without authorisation

Anyone who brings CBAM goods into the EU above the de minimis threshold without being an authorised declarant faces a higher penalty under Article 26(2): three to five times the per-tonne penalty for each certificate that should have been surrendered. The 2025 simplification, Regulation (EU) 2025/2083, set an annual de minimis of 50 tonnes of covered goods per importer.

## Late or wrong declarations

For other breaches, such as late or incorrect annual declarations, Member States set effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties under national law. Where a declaration is missing or wrong, the competent authority can also assess the certificates owed itself, using the information it has, including default values. Ask the authority in the Member State where the declarant is established for its rules.

## What this means for an Indian exporter

- The penalty falls on the EU declarant, not on you, but buyers will push the risk back through contracts and price.
- Missing or unverified emissions data pushes the declarant to default values with mark-ups, which raises their cost.
- Agree in the contract what data you supply, by when, and who pays if it is late or wrong.

## Worked example: a 100 certificate shortfall

- Certificates owed but not surrendered: 100
- Penalty: 100 x the indexed ETS penalty, which is above EUR 100, so more than EUR 10,000
- Certificates still to buy and surrender: 100 x EUR 82.32 (official Q3 2026 price) = EUR 8,232
- Total cost of the shortfall: more than EUR 18,232

Use the indexed penalty figure published for the relevant year and the certificate price at the time of purchase.

## What Senseible does here

Senseible does not file CBAM declarations or calculate penalties. Its CBAM cost calculator estimates certificate costs from 2026 to 2034 so an exporter and buyer can see the exposure early.

- [CBAM definitive period](https://senseible.earth/answers/cbam-definitive-period)
- [CBAM 50 tonne exemption](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/cbam-50-tonne-exemption)
- [Become a CBAM authorised declarant](https://senseible.earth/climate-intelligence/become-cbam-authorised-declarant)
- [CBAM cost calculator](https://senseible.earth/cbam-calculator)

Sources: [Regulation (EU) 2023/956, consolidated text, Article 26](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/956/2025-10-20), [Regulation (EU) 2025/2083, CBAM simplification](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2025/2083/oj), [European Commission, price of CBAM certificates](https://taxation-customs.ec.europa.eu/carbon-border-adjustment-mechanism/price-cbam-certificates_en)

Last reviewed 2026-10-15. The penalty amount is indexed each year and national penalty rules differ; recheck before quoting figures.