Relief for Amazon: Delhi HC grants customs duty exemptions to co’s Echo devices

The Delhi High Court has held that Amazon’s eleven “Echo family devices,” including Echo Show 5, Echo Dot 4th Generation and Echo 4th Generation with Clock, are convergence devices, thus eligible for custom duty exemptions.

Setting aside a ruling by the Customs Authority for Advance Rulings, which had placed such devices under the category of speakers, a division Bench comprising Justices Yashwant Varma and Dharmesh Sharma said that that the approach taken by the Authority in determining the classification of certain devices was “narrow, if not myopic.”

“The AAR did acknowledge the principles of interpretation guided by the General Interpretative Rules, the chapter headings and the notes placed therein, it clearly appears to have failed to test or answer the issue of classification based on the guiding principles as evinced therefrom,” it said, adding Echo Show devices could be used not only for playing video content but also for video calling and messaging.