That's Not a Chip... That's a Pringle!

by jordan | July 4, 2008 at 12:14 pm | 258 views | 1 comment

In a tax dispute ruling, a London judge announced that Pringles are not potato chips, as they do not fit the legal definition. The stackable snackables are made from dough and not potato, and the eating "experience" is not that of eating a crisp. Or a chip. This ruling actually makes Procter & Gamble happy, as they are now a tax-exempt snack in the UK

Pringles don't fulfill the legal definition of "potato crisp," the British word for "chip," allowing them to be sold tax free in the United Kingdom, Justice Nicholas Warren at the High Court in London ruled.

Under British law, most food is exempt from Britain's 17.5% sales tax. Even so, the national tax office claimed that Pringles were covered by an exception for products such as potato chips, sticks or puffs "and similar products made from the potato, or from potato flour, or from potato starch."

Potato chips "give a sharply crunchy sensation under the tooth and have to be broken down into jagged pieces when chewed," the Cincinnati-based company's lawyers argued. "It is totally different with a Pringle, indeed a Pringle is designed to melt down on the tongue."

Warren agreed. Pringles aren't "made from the potato" for the purposes of the tax office's exemption, he said. He didn't say what Pringles are, other than that they're tax-exempt.