Littlewoods Group, which owns such businesses as Kays and Great Universal, recently merged with Shop Direct Ltd, making them the giants of home shopping in the British Isles.
As a result of the merger the new company owned a number of mail-order businesses, some of which charged VAT to people in the Channel Islands and some of which did not.
In order to have all the various branches of the business charging the same, the Littlewoods Group decided to impose VAT charges on every customer.
Fair Play, the Jersey Evening Post’s weekly consumer column, is campaigning to reverse their decision and is looking for the support of as many readers as possible who use the mail-order catalogues.
The full list of the mail-order companies in the group is in today’s Fair Play, as are the contact details for Islanders to get in touch and add their support.
The company has started sending letters to all its customers in the Channel Islands announcing that it will start charging VAT in September.
As ‘a special offer for the Channel Islands’ it will, until then, offer a ten per cent discount.
