In Littlewoods Retail Ltd v HMRC (and related applications) (No 3) (Ch D – 4 November) several retail companies had claimed a repayment of VAT on the basis that commission which they paid to agents should have been treated as a discount. HMRC accepted the claims in principle (while disputing the amounts of the claims) and made repayments with simple interest under VATA 1994 s 78. The companies took proceedings contending that the effect of the HL decision in CIR v Sempra Metals Ltd [2007] STC 1559 was they were entitled to compound interest. The Ch D heard the companies’ claims and referred four specific questions to the ECJ. Vos J expressed the provisional opinion that ‘that EU law does not give a taxable person a right to payment of compound interest representing the use value of the money in cases where VAT has been overpaid contrary...