Overstock Files Lawsuit w Supreme Court to Fight New York Tax Law

June 2, 2008 No comments

Breaking news as first reported by Linda Buquet at 5StarAffiliatePrograms.com, Internet retail giant Overstock who most recently dismissed their estimated 3,400 New York affiliates from their affiliate program which I had written about in a previous post Overstock.com Terminates All NY Affiliates has recently filed suit with the Supreme Court to fight the New York Tax Law, which went into affect June 1st 2008.

The Overstock press release is quoted as follows, “Overstock.com, which is based only in Utah, has no operations in New York, and sells exclusively through the internet, views the new law as unconstitutional under both New York and federal constitutional provisions, including due process clauses under both constitutions and the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution as well.” [Overstock May 30th press release]

Mark Griffin Overstock.com general counsel stated in the press release, “I am confident of our position in the suit.” [Overstock May 30th press release]
Overstock’s commitment to fighting this tax is a positive step in assisting the strength of the Amazon complaint which was filed on Friday May 2, 2008, as written in The New York Times. Amazon filed a complaint in State Supreme Court in Manhattan objecting to the law, which was approved as part of the $122 billion state budget that Gov. David A. Paterson has already signed and which went into affect yesterday.

Rallying up the Affiliate Marketing Community

Peter Bordes Jr. who is a founder, CEO, and chairman of the board of MediaTrust, Inc and an ardent blogger at www.relevantlyspeaking.com was on the recent IAB public policy meeting on the new Can-Spam legislation. In the last segment of the meeting MediaTrust’s CMO Trip Foster and ValueClick opened the affiliate tax discussion and Peter has some interesting things of note which he mentions in his post here as well is calling for petitions to be sent in to affiliatepetition@gmail.com.

Linda Woods President of PartnerCentric.com and host of Affiliate Marketing Insider a popular radio show on WebmasterRadio.fm is joining with other industry leaders and thought provokers on her Webmaster Radio show this Thursday at 12n PST/3pEST to discuss the New York Tax issue.

Brian Littleton President of ShareaSale.com a top affiliate network is commenting on the topic from a network perspective on the ShareaSale blog. ShareaSale is the only network I know of to date to offer New York affiliate sales reporting for their networks.

Cecily Lancit President of Affiliopolis.com has been spearheading communication attempts directly with the New York State Tax office representatives. In one of my recent posts Interview with Members of the New York State Tax Department I mentioned the phone conference we were supposed to have with the representatives from the New York Office but at the last minute the NY office stated they would prefer written questions, many persons from the industry submitted questions to Cecily to pose to the New York Office and they have responded with a time line for response of up to one month. Special thanks to Wade Tonkin of GTOManagement.com who also submitted some insightful questions along with others!

Linda Buquet of 5StarAffiliateprograms.com has been a champion concerning ensuring news and information from all around the affiliate community is disseminated to those who need her timely information by accessing her popular affiliate blog and forum.

Shawn Collins the Affiliate Marketing Industry legend and co founder of AffiliateSummit.com also has been spearheading communications of information throughout the community and taking a positive stand in support of Overstocks efforts on his popular blog AffiliateTip.com

New York Affiliate Tax Issue – What’s next?

As the President of PaulsonManagementGroup.com where we manage many affiliates programs in multiple networks, I can tell you that this issue has many of us all rechecking out processes and strategies moving forward. The discussions and emails are going around concerning the development of an affiliate industry association which we are all hoping will be established sooner rather then later. What’s next? Well we need to be prepared to answer that question, let’s hope it is not too late.

Where to register for a Sales Tax Certificate of Authority: http://www.nys-opal.com/ (click the “‘on-line applications” link on the left-hand margin and go from there.)