No one so far has mentioned registered charities ( I mean registered with the Charity Commission, not VAT). There are a lot who have websites, selling all kinds of things to raise money. I don’t know whether many of them sell digital products, but they might. If this VAT issue spreads on to physical goods online in the future, it will drag an awful lot of charities into the VAT mess. They don’t all make millions; if you analyse info from the Charity Commission website, you’ll find that many account for incomes less than £10,000 a year; and also many more are well under £50k. A vast percentage, heritage especially, are run by volunteers; I am one; and I’m hanged if I want to see my organisation dragged into doing VAT paperwork….we all have enough to do as it is, without even MORE admin.

Secondly; there are countless craftspeople and artists online, using blogs, websites, specialist online galleries etc; again a huge majority selling really small volumes, insufficient to bother the taxman, let alone the VAT man. Some may also be selling digitally, like art courses, e books, etc etc. again small-scale. Legislation like this will destroy many.

As for the “you can’t refuse to sell to someone in the EU because it’s discrimination” statements I’ve seen elsewhere, well guess what, it’s going to happen, discrimination laws or not. I can see a lot of online shopping dying a death…not everyone buys from the Big Boys…shoppers enjoy niche markets and small traders.
So much for the EU and its “equal opportunities” bull. No wonder the whole pack of cards is going down; the faster the better.