Federal Circuit Affirms Classification, Lower Duty Rate for OtterBox Cellphone Cases
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling saying cellphone cases imported by OtterBox are classifiable in the tariff schedule as generic “other” articles of plastic, dutiable at 5.3 percent, rather than as containers…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
subject to a 20 percent duty rate. A three-judge Federal Circuit panel agreed last week with a year-old U.S. Court of International Trade decision that the cellphone cases don't meet most of the four criteria for classification as containers under heading 4202 -- organizing, storing, protecting and carrying -- and are also dissimilar from such containers because they're designed to allow use of the cellphone while inside the container.