MSE News: Boost for shoppers as 'airport tax rip-off' review set for take-off
Former_MSE_Sam_M
Former MSE 346 Posts
MSE Staff
The Government has launched a review into airport retailers not passing on VAT discounts to shoppers...
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'Boost for shoppers as 'airport tax rip-off' review set for take-off'
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'Boost for shoppers as 'airport tax rip-off' review set for take-off'
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Have you nothing better than vacation stuff to throw a hissy fit at?
If MSE didn't spend so much of its time finding "loop holes" in offers that openly encouraged people to misuse the SOMETIMES legitimate offers of retailers then I might start listening.
The country needs tax revenues. The retailers think the current system is too difficult. The removal of the tax break for EU travel didn't lead to disaster. It's an obvious target for a desperate chancellor, and why not scrap VAT refunds for non-EU citizens going home while you're at it.
UK airport duty free shops have become a total rip off for many types of product especially booze.
I go through Stansted frequently but went through Luton last weekend and mentioned my experience in a recent thread.
Ron Zapaca 23 Solera 1 litre is over £52 in Stansted and over £58 in Luton yet 500 miles away in a high tax country in their airport it is barely much over £30.
UK airports' shelf label indications of price saving are disgracefully misleading.
Well, obviously plenty of people or the shops wouldn't be there but you have to wonder what they are thinking.
On a recent flight to Tenerife people were buying cigarettes on the plane at almost twice the price they could buy them at in a couple of hours time ???
Confiscating your water at security is like restaurants not letting you bring your own beverage. Coincidence? We are paying towards the security, so we are paying them to make us spend more. :eek:
Not only are the airports duping people to spend, they'e aided and abetted by the bottled water companies
The Airports don't run the shops though they are privately owned. They pay rent but that is a flat rate, the Airport wouldn't have any benefit at all if the VAT discounts were forced from the retailers who don't otherwise give it. Why did you assume it was otherwise?
Not completely correct, at least at Heathrow. A significant number of outlets there have profit-sharing deals with the airport rather than flat rent. I would suspect LHR is not alone in this practice.
Quite a few posters here talking about alcohol and tobacco sales, which are unaffected by this review since duty-free on these products operates under different rules already.
The airport shops (excluding the true duty-free shops) fall into 3 broad categories:
Those who charge high street (or higher) prices to everyone, like Boots and WH Smith. We can be sure these were creaming extra profits from this practice.
Those with a "blended" price, selling at the same price to everyone somewhere between their high street and the fully VAT-discounted price. Dixons is an example of this, and we cannot know from outside whether their pricing results in higher or lower profits, as we don't know their mix of EU and non-EU destination passengers.
Those who already give the VAT discount to all passengers regardless of destination. This tends to be at the luxury end of the market, where their higher margins can absorb the discount to the EU destination passengers.
There are actually bargains to be had at airports, especially in the 3rd category, but as with any shopping, you should know what the pricing is elsewhere before you buy. In the age of smartphones, it's hardly difficult to do a quick price comparison.
I don't expect this review to amount to much. Boots have already stopped asking for boarding passes, they haven't changed their pricing though, as far as I've seen. In reality the government would be happy about this, because they are getting more VAT revenue as a result, even if some consumers should not be paying it.