Are fitness bands communication devices? Supreme Court to examine

NEW DELHI: Are fitness bands, popularly used for measuring and monitoring physical activities and vital parameters, a communication device?

The Supreme Court has agreed to examine this question but has flagged that its Bluetooth connectivity capability could have been the reason for its classification as a communication device.

Petitioner GOQii Technologies imported activity trackers/fitness bands, and the consignment was classified as communication devices by the Customs department asking the company to execute provisional duty bonds for Rs 3.64 crore. The goods were released after the company furnished a bank guarantee of Rs 1 crore.

Petitioner’s counsel Kumar Sambhav told a bench of Justices P S Narasimha, Aravind Kumar and Shree Chandrashekhar that the fitness bands being measuring/counting instruments should have been classified as ‘pedometers and the like/other’ but customs department erroneously treated the goods as apparatus for ‘transmission or reception of data’ and levied additional duties.

The bench agreed to examine the questions raised by the petitioner, issued notice to the Commissioner Customs (imports) and posted the matter for further hearing on Sep 11. “Till the next date of hearing, the bank guarantee shall not be invoked,” the bench ordered.

The petitioner said, “The principal and predominant function of the goods, as found on the record, is the measurement and monitoring of physical activity and vital parameters, and that the data-connectivity (Bluetooth) feature is admittedly ancillary.”

Justice Kumar said it does not remain a purely measuring device when it can be connected to communication devices like mobile phones and other satellite-based communication systems through Bluetooth and serve as a communication device.

The petitioner said before the Customs, Excise & Services Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT), it had placed Bombay IIT's expert opinion of Bombay IIT that it is not a communication but a measuring device, but the tribunal upheld the customs department’s stand.

CESTAT had rejected the company’s plea for classification of fitness bands as ‘pedometers’ saying, “Essential function of all pedometers are that when a person takes each step, a mechanism like swinging pendulum to one side and then back again or swinging hammer touches metal contact to complete an electrical circuit to measure each of such step, in measuring the distance travelled by a person.”

Upholding the determination that these fitness bands were communication devices, the CESTAT had said, “Once the activity tracker/fitness band or smart watch is synced with GOQii application, the regular activity data and sleep data, tracked automatically and manually, will be visible to the coaches, who will in turn give daily support, resources, motivation and interpretation of the tracking data to help individual wearer to stay on track so as to reach individual fitness goals.”