In Heathrow Airport Ltd and others v HM Treasury and HMRC [2021] EWCA Civ 783 (21 May 2021) the Court of Appeal rejected a challenge the government’s decision to withdraw two VAT reliefs providing for tax free shopping from the end of the Brexit implementation period (11pm on 31 December 2020).
The two schemes were the VAT retail export scheme which was statutory and provided for non-EU visitors to recover the VAT on high street purchases which they took home in their luggage and tax free shopping under extra-statutory concession 9.1 which allowed retailers in ports and airports to zero-rate sales to passengers departing for non-EU destinations. (Note that the retail export scheme continues to apply in Northern Ireland under the Brexit NI Protocol.)
The court considered two main grounds on which the claimants challenged the government’s decision. The first was that the government’s interpretation of the WTO non-discrimination...
