An appeals court has agreed with European Union officials that the PS2 is a video games console and not a computer, ruining the Japanese manufacturer’s hopes for a significant rebate of custom duties. In a hope to be eligible for a lower duty rate Sony lawyers had argued that the PS2 should be considered as a computer, since some of its chips have the capacity to do some data processing.
The existing EU customs regime is set to change on January 1st 2004, when all computers and consoles will be allowed into the EU with zero tariff.
