This was the bizarre ruling handed down by a High Court judge, who found that the popular snack was not a crisp.
Judge Justice Warren said Pringles' "unnatural shape", distinctive tube packaging, and non-potato ingredients meant that the snack could not be classified as a crisp.
The result is a victory for Pringles' manufacturer Procter & Gamble, which has fought a long-running battle against the taxman, arguing the snack should be free from VAT.
Some of the finest legal minds in the country have been arguing over the "potatoeness" of the snack, a battle just as fierce as that waged over the Marks & Spencer marshmallow tea cake.
In that case six years ago, the store won against the British tax authorities who had chosen to classify M&S's chocolate-coated teacakes as a sweet instead of a cake.
Under UK law most food carries no VAT. However, coated biscuits and "potato crisps, potato sticks, potato puffs and similar products made from the potato, or from potato flour, or from potato starch", are subject to a tax of 17.5 per cent.
The ruling yesterday pointed out that Pringles – who are most famous for their irritatingly catch adverts "once you pop, you can't stop" – contain corn flour, wheat starch, maltodextrin, emulsifier, rice flour and dextrose, and just 42 per cent potato content.
