DDP — Delivered Duty Paid
The seller's maximum obligation: delivered to the destination with import clearance done and duties paid.
- Group
- D — Arrival
- Transport mode
- Any mode, including multimodal.
- Named place
- The destination where the cleared goods are placed at the buyer's disposal.
- Main carriage paid by
- Seller
- Risk passes
- At destination, cleared, ready for unloading
- Export clearance
- Seller
- Import clearance and duties
- Seller
- Seller must insure
- No obligation on either party. Arrange your own cover.
- Unloading at destination
- Buyer.
DDP is the opposite of EXW. The seller bears all costs and risks to the named destination. It is the only one of the eleven rules where the seller handles import clearance and pays the duties and taxes. Delivery is on the arriving vehicle, ready for unloading. Like DAP, DDP does not include unloading.
Import clearance is the part that catches sellers out. Many countries require the importer of record to have a local company, or to be registered for the destination's VAT or sales tax. A seller who quotes DDP into such a country may find they cannot legally act as importer, even though they have contracted to do so. They may also find that the import VAT they expected to recover becomes a cost they cannot get back.
It works well for small parcels, and for buyers who want one landed price with nothing to arrange. It is a poor choice for a first shipment into a country you do not know.
Before quoting DDP, check that you can be the importer of record in the destination country, and check whether you can recover the import VAT. Both answers depend on the country, and both are often no.
Always write the rule with its named place and the version — DDP [named place], Incoterms 2020. The rule says nothing about when ownership transfers; that is for your sales contract.