The appellant imports, distributes and sells organic products in the UK. These include powdered vegan food supplements under the brands ‘Sunwarrior’ and ‘Hemple’. The appellant filed an error correction notification requesting a repayment of output tax overdeclared between 1 October 2016 and 30 September 2020, totalling £1,246,566.08, on the basis that certain products, including those sold under the Sunwarrior and Hemple brands, were properly zero-rated as food. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) agreed that the Hemple products were zero-rated but held that the Sunwarrior products were ‘sports drinks’ and therefore standard-rated under excepted Item 4A at Group 1 of Schedule 8 to VATA 1994. The appellant appealed this decision. 

The appellant submitted that a product would only fall within Item 4A if it was: 

1. a "sports drink";