Business Law

Amazon.com Sues State of North Carolina to Stop the State’s Tax Collector

 
In the May 2, 2010, edition of The New York Times, Noam Cohen wrote an article about how Amazon.com commenced litigation in Federal District Court in downtown Seattle, WA, to stop the State of North Carolina’s, Secretary of Revenue from auditing online businesses who do not pay sales tax, but probably owe, to North Carolina.  This is just one more example of how States’ are looking for ways to manufacture revenue when times are difficult, and politicians can avoid having to cut budgeted programs. 
 
The complaint by Amazon.com alleges that the auditing of online businesses violates the First Amendment and privacy rights of consumers, as well as the individual businesses, but Secretary of Revenue, Kenneth R. Lay says "[T]his is an issue of fairness and equity for small businesses, the brick and mortar, corner store operations."  According to the article, Amazon.com’s attorney’s raise a compelling issue for the District Court to consider:
"the Constitution protects[Amazon.com] so that it ‘may sell — and customers may read, hear or view — a broad range of popular and unpopular expressive materials with the customers’ private content choices protected from unnecessary government scrutiny.’  The complaint gave examples of books Amazon had shipped to North Carolina: ‘Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families,” by Francis Mark Mondimore, and “He Had It Coming: How to Outsmart Your Husband and Win Your Divorce,” by Stacy Schneider.  The movies, the complaint said, included ‘Lolita,’ ‘Brokeback Mountain’and ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’  It is a telling list: imagine what the government could do with ‘Converting to Islam for Dummies’ or ‘Plant Your Own Marijuana Field.’  For this reason, privacy experts say, library records have been granted special protections and are generally not kept for long, lest they offer a tempting target for investigators."

There are so many mediums in today’s society that can identify us as individuals to the government – how we "tweet"; the IP addresses we look up (ironically, this issue was debated in Federal District Court in Seattle to no avail, but technology says otherwise); television channels; social media; and correctly enough, the books in which we read.  How much privacy are we willing to give up?  To generate "revenue" so as to "level the playing field" for us small business owners.  I find Mr. Lay’s reasoning to be gimmicky, because as any savvy small business owner will tell you, the "brick and mortar" business relies as much on the Internet to drive sales as does any online business.  This is nothing more than one States’ resolution to find ways to fill up its coffers so politicians don’t have to cut programs, and thereby avoid not getting re-elected. 

To see how a "brick and mortar" business utilizes the Internet, please click here:  Timeless Elegance Mapped Out by Google Store Views

To read the article in more detail, please click here:  In a State’s Search for Sales Tax, Amazon Raises Privacy Concerns

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.