Contact: Wayne Berkowitz; Berdon LLP (New York, New York, USA)
The fight goes on over the so-called Amazon law compelling e-commerce retailers to collect sales and use tax on your online purchases. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) argued that Colorado's notice and reporting requirements for out-of-state vendors discriminated against the retailers who do not collect the tax on sales to Colorado purchasers and placed an undue burden on interstate commerce.¹
The DMA's position was that this would violate the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, however, directed a lower district court to dismiss the DMA case. The court would not rule on the DMA's Commerce Clause claims, but did say that the Tax Injunction Act (28 U.S.C. §1341) did not give the lower district court the authority to rule over Colorado's tax collection efforts. However, the fight goes on. Undaunted, on September 18, the DMA filed a petition for a rehearing with the same court.
¹Direct Marketing Assn v. Brohl, 10th Cir., No 12-01175, 8/20/13
