Sony sees red as EC dubs PlayStation 2 a ‘game console’

Will have to pay more import duty, that's why

By Tony Smith • Get more from this author

Posted in Business, 2nd November 2000 17:57 GMT

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Sony is set to sue to European Commission if the organisation's taxation officials refuse to budge on their classification of the PlayStation 2 as a video game player.

Hang on a mo, we hear you say, PlayStation 2 is a video game player. Not according to Sony, it isn't. The Japanese giant insists that, thanks to its ability to be hooked up to a modem and connect to the Net, it's a computer and should be treated as such for tax purposes.

Sony's motivation here is purely financial. As a computer, the PlayStation 2 will not be liable for a 2.2 per cent tax on every machine it imports into the European Union. That rate is applicable to video games players, however.

You can see the problem. The EC wants is 2.2 per cent, and Sony, understandably, doesn't want to pay up. So much so, in fact, that it's willing to go to court to force the EC to change its mind.

Sony Computer Entertainment president Ken Kutaragi said that legal action against the EC was a "100 per cent certainty" if the organisation sticks to its classification ruling, the Financial Times reports. ®