CBAM Penalties: What Happens If You Miss a Declaration or Don't Surrender Enough Certificates

During the 2023-2025 transitional period, failing to file a CBAM report could cost EUR 10 to EUR 50 per tonne of unreported emissions, indexed to the European consumer price index. In the definitive period, an authorised declarant that does not surrender enough certificates by 30 September pays a penalty identical to the EU ETS excess emissions penalty for each missing certificate. Paying it does not cancel the debt: the certificates must still be surrendered. Importing without authorization costs three to five times that amount.

Two regimes, two logics

The transitional period, from 1 October 2023 to 31 December 2025, only required data, so its penalties punished missing or wrong reports. The definitive period, from 1 January 2026, creates a financial obligation, so its penalties work like the EU ETS. The comparison below is drawn from Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/1773 and the consolidated Regulation (EU) 2023/956, both indexed in the EU CBAM knowledge base.

Transitional period: the per-tonne reporting penalty

Article 16 of Implementing Regulation 2023/1773 required Member States to impose penalties in two cases: the reporting declarant did not take the necessary steps to submit a report, or did not correct an incomplete or incorrect report after the competent authority opened a correction procedure. The range was EUR 10 to EUR 50 per tonne of unreported emissions, increasing with the European consumer price index. In setting the amount, authorities had to consider:

• the extent of unreported information, quantities and emissions;
• the declarant's readiness to provide information or correct the report;
• whether the behavior was intentional or negligent;
• past compliance and the level of cooperation;
• voluntary measures taken to prevent repetition.

Higher penalties applied if more than two incomplete or incorrect reports were submitted in a row, or if the failure to report lasted more than 6 months. Reports could be modified up to two months after the end of the quarter. On a justified request, the authority could allow a correction up to one year after the quarter ended (IR 2023/1773, Art. 9). Penalty proceedings for transitional quarters may still come up in 2026, so keep those records.

Definitive period: failing to surrender certificates

Article 26(1), as amended in 2025, says an authorised declarant that fails to surrender, by 30 September, the certificates corresponding to the previous year's imports "shall be held liable for the payment of a penalty". The penalty is "identical to the excess emissions penalty set out in Article 16(3) of Directive 2003/87/EC and increased pursuant to Article 16(4)", applicable in the year of importation, for each certificate not surrendered. The ETS Directive itself is not in the knowledge base, so this article gives no euro amount. Check the current ETS figure at the source.

• The debt remains. "The payment of the penalty... shall not release the authorised CBAM declarant from the obligation to surrender the outstanding number of CBAM certificates" (Art. 26(3)).
• Third-party errors can reduce it. If the shortfall comes from incorrect information supplied by an operator, a verifier or the independent person certifying carbon-price documentation, the authority may reduce the penalty, taking account of duration, gravity, intent and cooperation (Art. 26(1a)). For a US producer, this means errors in your data can trigger your customer's penalty.
• Formal notice. The authority must state its conclusion, reasons, amount, due date, how to pay and the right of appeal (Art. 26(4)). Unpaid penalties are recovered by any means under national law (Art. 26(5)).

For US exporters, the practical point is contractual. Your EU customer's penalty can be reduced if your data was wrong, but the customer still bears it, along with the certificates it still owes. The accuracy of the verified data and production-year information you supply therefore directly affects your customer's exposure, and that is worth addressing in supply contracts.

If no declaration is filed at all

Article 19(4) covers the declarant that simply does not file. The Commission assesses its obligations "on the basis of the information at its disposal". It establishes a preliminary calculation of the certificates that should have been surrendered, at the latest by 31 December of the year after the declaration was due. The competent authority then sets the definitive number and orders the extra certificates to be surrendered within one month (Art. 19(5)). For 2026 imports, the declaration was due on 30 September 2027, so the Commission's preliminary calculation must come by 31 December 2028 at the latest. Declarations can also be reviewed until the end of the fourth year after they were due (Art. 19(2)).

Importing without authorization: the heaviest penalty

A person other than an authorised declarant who brings CBAM goods into the EU without complying pays three to five times the Article 26(1) penalty per certificate not surrendered (Art. 26(2)). Since the Omnibus, this also covers importers that exceed the 50-tonne threshold without authorization, calculated on all their embedded emissions for the year (Art. 26(2a)). The number of certificates is calculated from net mass and default values, after the free-allocation adjustment (Art. 26(4a)).

• The authority may go below three times, though never below the standard penalty, if the threshold was exceeded by no more than 10%, or if a provisional importer under Article 17(7a) had its application refused.
• Unlike the declarant's penalty, paying this one releases the importer from declaring and surrendering for those imports.
• Artificially splitting imports to stay below the threshold is treated as a serious infringement (Art. 25a(4)).

Seven mistakes that lead to penalties

1. Assuming the 50-tonne exemption still applies after crossing it mid-year.
2. Importing through a customs broker that is not itself an authorised declarant.
3. Waiting for supplier data past the summer. The Commission's verification guidance suggests getting verified reports by mid-August.
4. Under-buying in 2027: from 2027, at least 50% must be held at each quarter-end. If the account falls short, the competent authority gives you one month to top it up, and both the notice and your response are logged in the CBAM registry (Art. 22(3)).
5. Relying on unverified actual emissions. Without verification, actual data cannot be declared (Art. 8).
6. Ignoring repeated shortfalls. A serious or repeated failure to surrender, or to hold enough certificates at quarter-end, can lead to revocation of the status (Art. 17(8)).
7. Losing records. Declarants must keep them until the end of the fourth year after the declaration year (Art. 7(6)).

Test your exposure with questions like "What happens if I simply don't file my CBAM declaration one year?" The knowledge base answers with the relevant paragraph of Article 19 or 26.

This article summarizes the rules in Regulation 2023/956 as consolidated on 20 October 2025 and Implementing Regulation 2023/1773. It is not legal advice. Penalty decisions are taken by national competent authorities, whose own practice is not covered by the knowledge base.