A Crispy Business

If you had spent years studying at law school what would you aspire to. Would you want to lead the lastest murder trial, would you want to be fighting for human rights, would you be trying to reverse great injustice? Or would you be trying to decide if Pringles are a cake or a crisp? It turns out that they are, in fact, crisps. Had you ever questioned that in your mind? They certainly seem to be marketed as crisps. But, for Proctor and Gamble, this is a serious issue. A cake is exempt from VAT. Crisps (and biscuits) are not. So it makes commercial sense to be a cake. A similar thing happened with Jaffa Cakes a few years ago, however they won that one on the grounds that biscuits go soft when they go stale and cakes go hard - Jaffa Cakes go hard ergo they are cakes. For Pringles it was the regularity of the shape and the fact that they are made from a dough that gave them a chance to claim that Pringles aren't crisps. However the judge has decided that there is more than enough "potatoiness" (really not sure of the spelling for that) for them to be crisps. And this is an expensive decision for Proctor and Gamble.