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A Jersey lawyer has started a campaign to get ASOS to stop charging VAT to Channel Island customers, and is asking those who have ordered from the online retailer in the last three years to get in touch.
While the terms and conditions from the online retailer state that exports to the Channel Islands are “zero rated”, Advocate Olaf Blakeley believes he was recently charged a VAT-equivalent price, and ASOS has so far declined to refund him despite a “flurry" of explanatory emails.
The lawyer says that at one point, ASOS’s customer services insisted no VAT had been charged.
When he pointed out the prices on their website included VAT and that he had paid that price, they then provided another argument.
Pictured: ASOS clearly states on their website that they do not charge VAT on orders from the Channel Islands.
“It appeared what their argument was, is they accounted 0% for VAT on the order, giving me the impression what they were saying was they were charging 20% more but just pocketing that and not accounting for it to HMRC,” Advocate Blakeley said.
“Legally, they would be right. If such was the shenanigans, you are not being charged VAT you are just being charged the same price as if you were paying VAT. ASOS just keeps it all because it is not legally required to account to HMRC.”
Following the “mind-boggling emails”, he has decided to pursue ASOS and is appealing to islanders who have been charged VAT on orders from ASOS over the last three years to get in touch.
“I need to gauge the extent of the problem before I begin the arduous task of extracting the overcharged amounts from ASOS, including having them agree to refund others’ historic amounts,” Advocate Blakeley said.
“They could have avoided this very expensive and complicated task, if they had just deducted 20% on my order. But, the gauntlet has fallen."
Islanders who think they have been charged VAT on orders from ASOS over the last three years should send their name and address to Advocate Blakeley via email.
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