Ikea to win back £300,000 from UK customs
Furniture chain store Ikea is set to win back £300,000 (€429,602) in illegal taxes charged by UK Customs and never returned.
The taxes, on bed linen from Asia, were ruled “invalid” in 2001 by the World Trade Organisation.
But legal efforts since then by the Swedish retail giant to get the money back have failed – until now.
After the World Trade Organisation ruling Ikea appealed to HM Customs and Excise without success, and then to the VAT and Duties Tribunal, which also turned the company’s request down.
Then the High Court, hearing another appeal, sent the case to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Now the EU judges have confirmed that, if taxes have been declared invalid by the WTO, Ikea is “in principle entitled to rely on the invalidity” to get the money back.
The disputed taxes were imposed by the EU in the form of protective duties aimed at preventing unfair cheap imports of bed linen from India and Pakistan.
But the WTO said Brussels had used an illegal method of calculating the tariffs, making them disproportionately high.
The advice from the EU judges amounts to a warning that the High Court has no choice under EU law but to give Ikea its money back.
But the final decision still rests with the High Court after it has considered the EU judgment.
