Apple's iPad loses customs duty advantage over competitors - FAS
MOSCOW. Nov 15 (Interfax) - Russia's Federal Customs Service (FCS) has stopped giving preferences to Apple and has allowed tablets from other manufacturers to be imported with a zero duty, the head of the information technology department at the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service (FAS) Vladimir Kudryavtsev told Interfax.
"Quite a few decisions have now been made on the classification of the products of other manufacturers, such as Acer, Lenovo, Sony and Samsung," as computers, not GPS devices, Kudryavtsev said.
If a tablet is classified as a computer, it can be imported at a zero import duty, but if it is classified as a GPS device it is subject to a 5% duty.
On Thursday, the FAS decided to terminate its consideration of a case against the FCS on the voluntary termination of customs violations, Kudryavtsev said.
Administrative proceedings regarding the violations and a decision on a possible penalty will be conducted separately, he said.
At the end of April, the FAS launched a case against the FCS after finding that the latter was creating preferential conditions for imports of the iPad compared to imports of tablets from other manufacturers.
The FCS in February allowed for iPads with GPS to be classified under the TN VED customs code for "computing machines," subject to a zero import duty.
At that time, the FCS had issued a telex that was later cancelled.
