Posted on Fri Jul 4, 04:41 PM in Food
Pringles aren’t chips. Pringles aren’t crisps. No duh!
In Britain, Pringles went to court to argue that their snacks were VAT-free. VAT, or Value Added Tax, is charged to potato crisp products in Britain. Pringles decided to argue that, in fact, the snack isn’t a potato crisp at all, and is really more like a cake or biscuit. The judge agreed, and the taxes were waived.
(BBC News article here.)
If you go to the Pringles website, they are pretty careful about not referring to their snack as a “chip.” Depending on which world location you choose, you may or may not see the word. So really, if Pringles hasn’t advertised its creation as a chip, I can see their point.
However, when you enter a market where your product looks enticingly like a potato chip, when you gain so much market share that consumers refer to your product as a chip, and when you do nothing to assuage these descriptions, I don’t see how you can then come back when it’s financially in your favor to do so and claim your product isn’t the very thing it was meant to compete against.
Granted, if you’ve had one, you know as well as I do that they ain’t potato chips; more like molded vaguely-potato-like products. But it sounds like a rare time when a company is arguing against a notion that, in the consumer circles, would harm sales, but in a courtroom, saves them money.
Go ahead, have your say!