Asos Under Scrutiny by German Authorities Over Unpaid Customs Duties

Asos is facing German courts. The British ecommerce group has been investigated by German authorities, who alleged “alleged incorrect declarations”, as the company has pointed out, about shipments that crossed the country’s border for several years, which would have led to the non-payment of customs duties that corresponded.

Germany’s General Directorate of Customs notified the company of the shortfall in payments earlier this year, with an estimate of tens of millions of euros, but the retailer expected the amount to be reduced after providing more information, the Financial Times has reported.

The British group confirmed it was contesting the assessments, saying it believes “the maximum exposure was irrelevant; we have completed a thorough review of over 95% of the tens of thousands of customs declarations in question and are confident that the actual additional liability is in the region of €500,000.“

Asos managed to halve its red numbers in the first half of the current fiscal year

Asos hired external advisors after learning of the news, to determine its ultimate responsibility for the non-payment of customs duties. “We continue to cooperate with the relevant authorities and legal processes and are confident that the matter will be successfully resolved,“ the company explained.

According to the latest data published, the British fashion ecommerce group managed in the first half of the year to halve its red numbers, despite the insistent fall in its sales. Losses were reduced by 56.2 million pounds ($75.4 million), while gross profit fell by 3.31% to 584.2 million pounds ($783.9 million).

Asos sales totaled 1,291.6 million pounds ($1.733 billion), down 13.75% from 1,497.6 mllion pounds ($2 billion) in the first half of 2024.