CBP: Shuffleboard Tables are More Like Parlor Game Tables and Not Chess Tables

Importer Global Merchants had requested that CBP reconsider a previous ruling that the tables should be classified under subheading 9504.90.90 as “video game consoles and machines, articles for arcade, table or parlor games, including pinball machines, bagatelle, billiards and special tables for casino games; automatic bowling alley equipment; parts and accessories thereof: Other: Other: Other.”

Instead, the importer wanted the shuffleboard tables classified under subheading 9504.90.60, which provides for “chess, checkers, parchisi, backgammon, darts and other games played on boards of a special design, all the foregoing games and parts there of (including their boards); mah-jong and dominoes; any of the foregoing games in combination with each other, or with other games, packaged together as a unit in immediate containers of a type used in retail sales; poker chips and dice.”

But in a decision rendered on Oct. 22, CBP upheld its previous ruling, saying that the shuffleboard tables are not sufficiently similar to the examples listed in subheading 9504.90.60.

The shuffleboard tables in question consist of a two-piece cradle constructed of solid wood supporting the shuffleboard playing surface and a shuffleboard tabletop, according to CBP. The game is played when players on opposing teams on opposite sides of the table slide metal pucks lengthwise across the shuffleboard tabletop.

CBP also described the shuffleboard tabletop playing surface as having vertically oriented, solid wood strips that are edged, glued, planed and printed with scoring markings and covered with a polymer to create a solid, smooth surface that enables the shuffleboard pucks to smoothly glide along the length of the shuffleboard table.

CBP listed several reasons it upheld its prior ruling. For starters, the example games in subheading 9504.90.60 are “in general, easily portable, are often sold together (i.e., chess and checkers),” CBP said. They “are sold in individual units to consumers directly. Shuffleboard tables, however, are not easily portable,” and given the size and manner in which they are sold, are more akin to the merchandise that would be classified in subheading 9504.90.90.

Furthermore, in response to Global Merchants’ inquiry about defining the phrase “played on boards of a special design” since the examples in subheading 9504.90.60 refer to the special design being essential to scoring or strategy, CBP said “the relevance of this factor is neither supported by the terms of the heading" nor the harmonized commodity description and coding system explanatory notes.

“Merriam-Webster defines a draught board as a checkerboard, and a checkerboard ‘is a board used in various games (such as checkers) with usually 64 squares in alternating colors,’ or ‘something that has a pattern or arrangement like a checkerboard,’” CBP said. “A draught board speaks to the pattern or design of the board, not the scoring and/or game strategy. CBP concludes that the shuffleboard table is not a game ‘played on [a] board of special design.’”

The argument that the shuffleboard tables are akin to tables that might have chess or checkers tabletops also falls short, CBP continued. Past rulings for these kinds of tables had them classified under subheading 9504.90.60 and they are “distinguishable from shuffleboard tables because they are tables of furniture that are eo nomine goods classified in this subheading and exemplified in the ENs -- the shuffleboard table is not.” Subheading 9504.90.60 is an eo nomine provision, as it provides for specific commodities by name, CBP said.

As a result of these factors, CBP upheld its ruling that the shuffleboard tables be classified under subheading 9504.90.90.