23 votes

Walkers’ Sensations Poppadoms vs HMRC: Crunch time

8 comments

  1. [5]
    mat
    Link
    Hilariously ridiculous legal hoop jumping here. Well worth the read. "Nominative determinism is not a characteristic of snack foods: calling a snack food “Hula Hoops” does not mean that one could...

    Hilariously ridiculous legal hoop jumping here. Well worth the read.

    "Nominative determinism is not a characteristic of snack foods: calling a snack food “Hula Hoops” does not mean that one could twirl that product around one’s midriff, nor is “Monster Munch” generally reserved as a food for monsters"

    archive link

    7 votes
    1. bitwaba
      Link Parent
      Man that pie chart killed me. I was not ready. "Bits that are potato" and "Bit that aren't potato".

      Man that pie chart killed me. I was not ready. "Bits that are potato" and "Bit that aren't potato".

      5 votes
    2. [3]
      cfabbro
      Link Parent
      @mat, was the ?accessToken= part of the originally submitted URL from you gifting the article? If so, I don't think it worked since I was still hit by the paywall. I have removed it for now, but...

      @mat, was the ?accessToken= part of the originally submitted URL from you gifting the article? If so, I don't think it worked since I was still hit by the paywall. I have removed it for now, but can add another back later if provided with a working one. No pressure though, since you provided a mirror already anyways.

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        mat
        Link Parent
        The url I originally posted showed up in a WhatsApp group I'm in and I didn't pay much attention to it. It worked for me on my phone but it wasn't working by the time it got to my laptop. So I...

        The url I originally posted showed up in a WhatsApp group I'm in and I didn't pay much attention to it. It worked for me on my phone but it wasn't working by the time it got to my laptop. So I guess it's someone else's gift that has reached its gifting limit or something?

        2 votes
        1. cfabbro
          Link Parent
          Ah, okay. And yeah, I dunno... I'm not sure exactly how ft's article gifting system works, and this is the first time I've encountered one. There is nothing about the gifted articles expiring on...

          Ah, okay. And yeah, I dunno... I'm not sure exactly how ft's article gifting system works, and this is the first time I've encountered one. There is nothing about the gifted articles expiring on their FAQ, but maybe they revoke the token if it's shared to too many people or something.

          3 votes
  2. first-must-burn
    Link
    Thanks for posting this. What a great read. I wonder if this was a very tedious case for the tribunal, or if they are usually this funny. This had me rolling: And then this pun:

    Thanks for posting this. What a great read. I wonder if this was a very tedious case for the tribunal, or if they are usually this funny. This had me rolling:

    In practice, we did not consider that they were significantly different to potato crisps with regard to their ability to convey dips etc, particularly given that we consider that there is a practical limit to the amount of dip or chutney that most people are likely to want to combine with the crunch of the conveyor product.

    And then this pun:

    The arguments about similarity included comparisons to poppadoms, and reference was made to HMRC guidelines which indicate that poppadoms will be zero-rated. However, the use of the word “poppadom” is something of a red herring (to badly mix foodstuffs).

    5 votes
  3. Foreigner
    Link
    This was very amusing, thank you for sharing! Reminds me of the jaffa cake VAT case also in the UK.

    This was very amusing, thank you for sharing! Reminds me of the jaffa cake VAT case also in the UK.

    3 votes
  4. DanBC
    Link
    I think there's a big thing hidden here. You used to be able to buy small packs of crisps. These were about 39gram packs. But we wanted to support public health so we put voluntary rules in place...

    As part of this “it’s a side, not a snack” argument, Walkers emphasised that Sensations Poppadoms are nowadays available only in sharing bags of the type one might associate with a group meal.

    I think there's a big thing hidden here. You used to be able to buy small packs of crisps. These were about 39gram packs. But we wanted to support public health so we put voluntary rules in place and now you can't easily get those. You can get bigger "Share packs", where the supposed serving size is half a pack. These are more expensive. But, obviously, many people are not sharing them nor keeping half the pack for tomorrow. They're just scoffing the entire pack.

    We try light touch / right touch regulation in the UK and sometimes it works but often it fails because companies just don't want to do it right. It's somewhat frustrating.

    Anyway, these are a delicious snack, and this is a great article and it's one of the reasons I love FT being posted here.

    1 vote