Current Status
In recent years, retailers, politicians and academics in the United Kingdom have claimed that this situation affords an unfair and damaging economic advantage to retailers based in the Channel Islands. These retailers are able to offer the same products as UK retailers but at significantly lower prices. The advantage was highlighted by Matt Moulding, CEO of The Hut Group, who was quoted in The Guardian as saying "If you aren't offshore you couldn't possibly compete. Your cost price would be above what people would be retailing at." The book Last Shop Standing by Graham Jones (one of the founders of Music Distributor Proper Distribution) details the detrimental effect VAT-free mail order has had on UK music retail, whilst specialist Internet retailers such as freakemporium.com have cited VAT-free mail order as the main factor in their demise.
Read more about this topic: VAT-free Imports From The Channel Islands
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