DVD Set Lacks Evidence of 'Proprietary Format' for Classification, CBP Finds

Despite claims of proprietary formatting for imported DVD sets, a classification protest lacked necessary information, Customs and Border Protection responded to an application for further review dated in June and released this month. The DVD sets, imported by Vintage, included digital catalogs, brochures, and educational, documentary and marketing videos, CBP said. Vintage protested CBP's classification of the DVDs under one subheading and said the media is better classified under another due to proprietary formatting. The classification hinges on whether DVDs include "proprietary formatting," previously defined by CBP as "encrypted in such a way that it can only read data if the devices with which the media are used contain a decryption algorithm that is not publicly available." While Vintage said "the subject DVD sets contain data that is encrypted in such a manner that they can only be played by a machine specifically encoded to read the data properly," proprietary formatting is not "necessarily tied" to the copyrightable content of the merchandise, CBP said. The associated duty rate is 2.7 percent.