Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

[5corpio]

Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Price reflects move to close tax loophole that allows Channel Islands retailers to avoid charging VAT on DVDs and CDs

Play.com, the largest of a group of Channel Islands-based websites selling CDs and DVDs at VAT-free prices, has been sold to a Japanese group for just £25m. The sale comes months before an expected clampdown that will close the tax loophole on which Play's business was built. The company, founded 13 years ago, is the UK's biggest seller of DVDs online, with estimated annual sales of about £500m. It has 14 million registered users and a staff of 500, and its success has contributed to the....Read more on this story---> Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m | Business | The Guardian

[5corpio]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Japanese giant Rakuten buys Kobo ebook business

Japan's biggest internet retailer is taking over the ebook firm Kobo. Rakuten already sells another digital reader in Japan: the Raboo, which is made by Panasonic. The $315m (£198m) acquisition is designed to help it become one of the biggest players in the ebook industry. The company also hopes to use Kobo and its popular book-themed social network to expand its...Read more here---> BBC News - Japanese giant Rakuten buys Kobo ebook business

[5corpio]

Channel Islands to fight VAT

Another Interven' by G Osborne -

Channel Islands to fight VAT-avoiding cheap CD and DVD loophole closure

The Channel Islands are to contest the Government’s decision to close a controversial VAT loophole at a judicial review next month. The Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) scheme allows firms to avoid paying Value Added Tax if they ship goods with a value of £15 or less to mainland Britain from outside the European Union. In his Autumn Statement, George Osborne announced that LVCR on imports from the Channel Islands would be scrapped on April 1. The Chancellor said at the time that he was committed to ‘ending the abuse’ of the scheme. The delay in implementing this was intended to give retailers time to adjust....Read more here--: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/n...phole-axe.html

[pompeyfaith]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Is George Osborne sounding a bit rich ...................

[5corpio]

Re: Channel Islands to fight VAT

Further Update:

Channel Islands make last bid to save VAT-free music retailing

After years of downplaying its significance, Guernsey and Jersey will admit to the high court this week that losing tax-exempt status would be devastating

Lawyers for the Channel Islands will travel to the high court in London this week in a last-ditch effort to block a move to clamp down on the islands' VAT-exempt e-commerce operations, which sell hundreds of millions of pounds of CD, DVDs and other goods over the internet. After years of playing down the scale of VAT-avoiding websites based on Jersey and Guernsey, the islands are now claiming the closure of this industry would be a "catastrophe". They are taking their case to a judicial review in the hope of blocking imminent plans to close a tax loophole that has allowed their offshore mail-order business to quietly mushroom to a substantial scale over almost a decade.....Read more here--: Channel Islands make last bid to save VAT-free music retailing | Business | The Observer

Another Interven' by G Osborne -

Channel Islands to fight VAT-avoiding cheap CD and DVD loophole closure

The Channel Islands are to contest the Government’s decision to close a controversial VAT loophole at a judicial review next month. The Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) scheme allows firms to avoid paying Value Added Tax if they ship goods with a value of £15 or less to mainland Britain from outside the European Union. In his Autumn Statement, George Osborne announced that LVCR on imports from the Channel Islands would be scrapped on April 1. The Chancellor said at the time that he was committed to ‘ending the abuse’ of the scheme. The delay in implementing this was intended to give retailers time to adjust....Read more here--: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/n...phole-axe.html

[5corpio]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

BUDGET 2012: DVD and book prices will rise with Channel Islands VAT change. The price of DVDs, cosmetics, books and contact lenses is expected to surge within days when a tax loophole closes. hancellor George Osborne sounded the death knell for cut-price goods from the Channel Islands in last year’s Budget when he announced goods under £15 would no longer be exempt from VAT from April 1 this year. Shoppers have only a few days to snap up cheaper goods online – after which retailers will raise prices by around 20 per cent....Read more here

[5corpio]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Jersey retailer Play.com closes direct retail business

Online retailer Play.com is to shut down its retail business to become a marketplace-only, from March. The Jersey-based firm blamed the move on the ending of Low Value Consignment Relief, which allowed items less than £15 to be sold to the UK VAT-free.
All 147 staff in Jersey are to be made redundant as well as 67 in its Cambridge and Bristol offices. Play.com will now become more like a shopping centre, no longer selling directly to customers. The Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) loophole was closed by the UK government in April 2012....More: BBC News - Jersey retailer Play.com closes direct retail business

[vossy]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

All these big companies have to do is set up their business where cammys dad and ossy's dad have all their money stashed away offshore - safe as houses then!!

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

All these big companies have to do is set up their business where cammys dad and ossy's dad have all their money stashed away offshore - safe as houses then!!

What's the postal service like from Belize?

[vossy]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

What's the postal service like from Belize?

Cant be much slower than the 7 Day Shop's deliveries - jeeez

[cymruambyth]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Ever since they were taken over they have been less competitive than their tax avoiding competition!

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Cant be much slower than the 7 Day Shop's deliveries - jeeez

I've no complaints about 7 day shop...

[5corpio]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Cant be much slower than the 7 Day Shop's deliveries - jeeez

I've no complaints about 7 day shop...

Zavvi is the worst offender for deliveries

[CleverClogs (RIP)]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

Zavvi is the worst offender for deliveries

He/they are "drop shippers", that's why.

[vossy]

Re: Play.com sold to Rakuten of Japan for £25m

I've no complaints about 7 day shop...

I have brought a lot of stuff in the past from 7 Day Shop but I have never had a quick delivery - ever, it has always been about 10 days, now I shop about a little more and find one that sends the goods as soon as I have paid.