Trade court - Football apparel not duty-free sports equipment 

March 20:   The U.S. Court of International Trade today granted the government’s motion for summary judgment with respect to the classification of football pants, jerseys, and girdle shells. Riddell, Inc. v. United States, Slip Op. 13-37 (CIT March 20, 2013)

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) classified the merchandise as “articles of apparel”—i.e., the football pants being subject to a 14.9% or 27.9% ad valorem duty; football jerseys being subject to a 32% duty; and football girdles being subject to a 10.5% duty—and rejected the importer’s proposed classification of the merchandise as duty-free “sports equipment.”


The court explained that whether an article is “required” for an individual to play a given sport does not, by itself, make the article classifiable as “sports equipment.” Here, the court found the merchandise was best described as apparel-like articles specially designed for playing organized football.


Read the court’s opinion [PDF 84 KB]



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