Originally Posted by
PWMTrav
Does duty free come into play when traveling within the EU?
No
bona fide duty free within the EU. But the duty free shops in European airports also sell stuff to people travelling within the EU, and amazingly, the prices are usually the same independent of where you travel to. In other words, a rip-off of those who are "entitled" to a duty free purchase. Of course, the stores will tell you that they're not doing this but, rather, they simply don't charge the VAT, which they're paying themselves.
By the way, I compared the prices of a few different bottles of "famous" brand liquor (e.g. Fernet Branca, Campari, etc.) in FCO duty free shops (D gates area) to those of CONAD and they were more or less the same. Only advantages, thus, the size of the bottles (litre vs 0.7) and the fact that you can carry them in your carry-on if both of these are important to you.