An appeals court Tuesday agreed with European Union officials that Sony's Playstation2 is a video game console and not a computer.
This is undercutting the Japanese electronics giant’s hopes for hefty rebates of customs duties.
Sony had argued the Playstation2 should be considered a computer – and thus eligible for a lower duty rate when imported into Europe – because of the chips inside and Playstation’s ability to do some data processing.
But the Luxembourg-based Court of First Instance disagreed. “It is quite clear that it is intended mainly to be used to run video games,” the court wrote in its decision.
Even so, the judges said they were technically forced to overturn the EU classification of Playstation2 because the European Commission, the EU’s executive agency, erred in how it reached its decision. The Commission now must readopt the customs classification using the correct legal basis.
Originally Tuesday, a court spokesman had announced that the judges had entirely sided with Sony, potentially giving the company the chance to win millions of euros in customs refunds. Later, however, the spokesman, Chris Fretwell, said that announcement had been based “on a misinterpretation of the judgment by me for which I apologize profusely.”
The EU customs regime is set to change anyway on Jan. 1, allowing computers and games consoles into the EU with zero tariff.
