Airports

Malpensa: €578 million in tax-free purchases by non-EU travellers between June and September

Malpensa Airport has seen a surge in tax-free spending, with over 700,000 VAT refund claims, confirming the importance of shopping tourism

by Davide Madeddu

22 October 2026

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2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

2' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

Spending totalling 578 million euros over three months and more than 700,000 VAT refund claims. These are the initial figures for purchases made between June and September by non-EU travellers at Malpensa Airport under the tax-free scheme.

This initial scenario, which points to “significant volumes” sufficient to confirm “the importance of shopping tourism and the intensive monitoring carried out at Italia’s main airport”, has been outlined by the Customs and Monopolies Agency.

578 million euros

“During the period in question, the total commercial value of goods purchased under the tax-free shopping scheme and transiting through Milan Malpensa Airport – as highlighted by the Customs and Monopolies Agency – reached 578 million euros, with over 2.3 million items purchased by travellers resident outside the European Union and carried in their luggage to their country of destination.”

717,000 refund claims

During the same period, the Lombardy 3-Malpensa office of the UADM (Customs and Monopolies Agency) processed 717,499 VAT refund claims via the Otello 2.0 system.

In 4,403 cases, the benefit was not granted, ‘due to discrepancies found in the applications or because the applicant failed to attend the customs check required for validation purposes’.

The Otello 2.0 system

This is the system (Online tax refund on exit: light lane optimisation) made available by the Customs and Monopolies Agency to digitise the process of ‘applying the “customs stamp” to the tax-free invoice, in order to qualify for direct relief or a subsequent refund of VAT on goods purchased within Italy by persons domiciled or resident outside the EU.

Conditions for reimbursement

To be eligible for the refund, applicants must have goods purchased with a value, for each invoice, exceeding 70 euros (until 31 January 2024, the value was 154.94 euros) and intended for personal or family use.

Furthermore, the invoice must include the details of the traveller’s passport or other equivalent document to prove that they are resident or domiciled outside the EU.

Furthermore, the goods must leave the EU within the third month following the date of issue of the invoice, and this must be evidenced by the ‘customs stamp’.

Origin

As for the origin of tax-free shoppers, the United States ranks first, with 113,115 requests, followed by China, with 59,439 requests, and Saudi Arabia, with 57,120 requests.

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