The British Court of Appeal has failed to overturn a ruling that classified the PlayStation 2 as a video games console rather than a computer, thereby denying Sony a lucrative £34.2 million ($63m) import duties rebate in the United Kingdom.
The PlayStation 2 was previously defined as a digital processing unit, rather than a computer, which meant that it was not eligible for the rebate between the years of 2001 and 2004. Sony has now lost its battle to have the console reclassified, with the Lord Justice now denying the company the right to take the appeal to the European Court of Justice.
Indeed, Lord Justice Chadwick was scathing of Sony’s case in his ruling on it, describing the Sony lawyers' arguments as exceeding “the bounds of propriety” and going “beyond what can be regarded as acceptable written advocacy”.
Although the PlayStation 2 was never described as a computer in a marketing context, Sony Computer Entertainment boss Ken Kutaragi has been adamant in his description of the
PlayStation 3 as a computer, and not a console. Since the rebate on import duties was phased out in 2005, though, Sony will not need to make this legal argument again.
