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Recently, the EU was in discussion about a possible cell phone tax in Europe, which would pretty much affect everyone who wished to purchase a phone.  Of course, big cell phone manufacturers such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson protested such a tax because their sales would fall. 

Currently, the EU is based in Sweden, and after a vote was held in a meeting yesterday, it was clear what the public wanted.  The vast majority of the EU members voted for duty-free cell phones.  As you can imagine, cell phone sales are already falling in Europe due to bad economic times, and a higher tax would have only further plummeted sales.

Back in December, the EU searched for a way to differentiate these “multi-functional devices” we call cell phones.  They came up with two pretty broad categories - cell phones with TV reception, and cell phones with GPS navigation.  Basically, any phone with TV receivers would have been slapped with a 14% tax, while phones with GPS navigation would have been slapped with a 3.7% tax. 

All major cell phone manufacturers are happy with the EU’s decision and I’m sure the citizens of Europe are as well.  Whether cell phone sales turn around any time soon remains to be seen. 

Via [Reuters]