Japanese e-tailer Rakuten has announced the end of its marketplace operation in the U.K., marking the next step in the winding down of the Play.com business it bought five years ago. The axe will fall in August.

In a statement on its corporate website, Rakuten revealed the changes were part of a wider European restructuring. The company said: "Rakuten will focus its e-commerce marketplace investment in France and Germany as the businesses there have the scale and potential for sustainable growth. However, in the U.K. and Spain, the cost of growth relative to the size of the businesses has led to plans to close these operations."

Rakuten put out a statement on its consumer-facing U.K. website yesterday explaining the mechanics of the closure. It said that the result will be that Rakuten.co.uk will not be available after August. The statement went on: "Please rest assured that all customer and merchant transactions will continue as normal until the end of August. If you have outstanding Rakuten Super Points earned for shopping on our marketplace, you will be able to use them here until the end of August 2016."

Play.com was bought by Rakuten in September 2011 for £25 million. In January 2013 the website ceased selling direct to consumers, and opted for a marketplace strategy, which allowed third-party vendors to use the site as a platform to sell to customers.

The change was prompted by the government closing a VAT loophole in April 2012 that had allowed the original Play.com site to sell VAT-free. Low Value Consignment Relief (which permits some inexpensive items to be imported into the U.K,. without applying VAT) allowed goods priced at below £15 to be sold in the U.K. VAT-free, which Play.com exploited via its operation based, at that stage, in the Channel Islands.

Play.com was a highly successful retailer, which started off selling CDs and DVDs in 1998 before expanding into books. At one time the retail site had up to 14 million British users and was poised to become a potential e-commerce partner for HMV. By 2008 Play.com was reportedly the second-largest online retailer of books in the U.K. Rakuten also owns Kobo, and the acquisition of Play .com meant it matched Amazon in terms of books offered, if not scale. Play.com ceased to be used as the site name early last year.

A version of this story originally appeared on the U.K. website BookBrunch.co.uk.