DDU Incoterms: Meaning and Replacement Rules

DDU (Delivered Duty Unpaid) is an obsolete Incoterms rule under which the seller delivers the goods to the named place of destination agreed in the contract and covers the transport, while the buyer is responsible for import clearance, duties and taxes. It was withdrawn in Incoterms 2010.

What replaced DDU

The ICC's 2010 revision replaced four Incoterms 2000 rules, DAF, DES, DEQ and DDU, with two new ones. The effective replacement for DDU is DAP (Delivered at Place), which carries the same split of responsibilities. The other new rule, DAT (Delivered at Terminal), renamed DPU in Incoterms 2020, took over the unloaded delivery of the old DEQ. Contracts written today should use the current Incoterms rather than DDU.

An older contract that still says "DDU Incoterms 2000" is not invalid: each contract is governed by the Incoterms version it refers to. The trouble starts when a purchase order says only "DDU" with no edition year, because both sides can then read different rules into it.

Who pays what under DDU

In practice, the meaning of DDU is that the seller bears the cost and risk of carriage to the agreed destination; the buyer pays customs duties, import taxes and any other import charges. If the seller is to cover part of these, it must be stated explicitly in the contract. The opposite split, with the seller also clearing the goods for import and paying the duties, is DDP (Delivered Duty Paid).

What DDU means for the haulier

For the truck itself, DDU and DAP work the same way. The seller books and pays the transport and carries the risk until the goods are placed at the buyer's disposal at the named place, still on the vehicle and ready for unloading. Unloading and import clearance are on the buyer's side.

The cost risk sits at a customs border, where the goods have to be declared for import and duties or import VAT are due, for example on a load from Germany to Switzerland or the United Kingdom. If the buyer or its customs agent has not prepared the import declaration, the truck waits at the border or at the inland customs office, and the sales contract usually says nothing about who pays the haulier for that time. Between EU Member States no customs duties apply, so on an intra-EU order the term mainly settles who pays the freight and where the risk passes. Before accepting a DDU or DAP load into a non-EU country, the dispatcher should know who the customs agent is, which documents travel with the truck and who pays waiting time. The overview of all 11 Incoterms 2020 rules shows where each current rule draws these lines.