Comments on: Amazon Affiliates Screwed: Colorado Law HB 10-1193

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:21:36 +0000

According to the state of Colorado, the law states that outside retailers have to notify the State of Colorado and the customer of what they spent, so that the state of Colorado can collect the money. It doesn't make any difference if they have affiliates in the state or not, if they make any sales in the state, then they have to report the sale. http://cclponline.org/pubfiles/Amazon%20fact%20sheet%203_9%20final.pdf

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 11 May 2010 23:04:22 +0000

Well, the devastation continues, I just received this email from about 50 Commission Junction advertisers. (CJ.com)

“XXXXXX,

Due to the recent tax laws regarding nexus involving online affiliate publishers in the state of Colorado (legislation known as HB 10-1193) we will no longer be able to accept new publishers from Colorado into our affiliate program.

Additionally, we will be immediately terminating our relationship with any publishers located in Colorado that were already joined. We sincerely apologize for the abrupt interruption in the program if this affected your account directly. This, unfortunately, affects our ability to continue business with loyal publishers and we understand that we are losing valuable relationships due to these new laws.

If you are a publisher located in Colorado, your publisher account will be closed as of May 18, 2010, and we will no longer pay advertising fees for sales referrals after that date. All sales made prior to May 18, 2010 will be credited to you and paid out in accordance with our regular schedule on June 10, 2010. Please accept our apologies and we appreciate your understanding. Hopefully in the future, these laws will be reversed in order to keep the networks diversified and growing.

Kind Regards,

XXXXXX
“

By: YourGo2Gals.com

YourGo2Gals.com — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 20:46:39 +0000

Great job on this post Deb!! Also love all the responses… This is obviously a hot button for a lot of people. As local and national governments try to find their way through the current economic conditions, we will all need to stay on top of what’s going so they don’t torpedo the general economy (and businesses) in the process!!

By: Affiliate Guidebook

Affiliate Guidebook — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:01:48 +0000

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By: Concerned Coloradan

Concerned Coloradan — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 15:45:47 +0000

I just found out about this today as I was setting up my Amazon store.
What a bombshell of a news this was.
What the heck is the world coming to when we are now getting taxed on the internet and the possibility of regulation I’m sure is on the horizon.

The fund managers of Wall Street and the governments of the states can’t manage a budget so now, they take it out on the small business owners? Ain’t right!
I may have to move out of the state of Colorado as my sole income is generated by affiliate marketing and the possibility of earning a good check from amazon is wiped out.

Too much government and regulations is a bad thing!

By: Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:56:59 +0000

I am not a lawyer, nor am I an apologist for the state of Colorado or Amazon (I’m pretty much equally mad at both:-).

When I first got my letter from Amazon, I immediately sent a letter to the Governor condemning it. Then (yeah, I know I did this in the wrong order:-), I read the bill, and I couldn’t find anything in it that targets affiliate programs. I also looked at an Emergency Regulation (39-26-102.3) and the relevant statutes referenced by both of them.

As far as I can tell, the bill applies to Amazon (and other out-of-state sellers) regardless of whether they have affiliates in Colorado.

The bill might be unconstitutional, and it is clearly unpopular, but I don’t see anything in it that justifies Amazon terminating its affiliates. If you look at the Amazon letter, you will see that they don’t actually say that the law targets affiliates. They say they don’t like the bill and that as a result they are terminating affiliates, but they never say that the law targets their affiliate program.

What this discussion really needs is an independent assessment by a disinterested lawyer who understands Colorado law and can give a clear explanation of what this bill means. As much as I sympathize with the opinions expressed in this posting and the comments, I’m not convinced that we are on the right track simply condemning the state and not looking into Amazon’s response.

By: Jed Caven

Jed Caven — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:55:24 +0000

@Cary & Scott,

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but simply incorporating your LLC in another state probably will not work. This dispute is essentially about jurisdiction. Under federal constitutional law a state can claim jurisdiction over an out-of-state entity only if the out-of-state entity meets the “minimum contacts” test. Amazon.com has no physical presence in Colorado, so Colorado is trying to bootstrap the affiliate marketing relationships to obtain “minimum contacts” between Amazon.com and Colorado, thereby establishing jurisdiction.

You can incorporate your LLC somewhere else, but the bottom line is that your business is still here in Colorado. Your business’s physical presence in the state gives Colorado jurisdiction over the business. And by extension, Colorado would take the position that the affiliate marketing relationship extends that jurisdiction to Amazon.

You’re going to have to move your business out of Colorado, preferably to a state that does not have a sales tax. Alternatively, you could move your business to a state in which Amazon.com already has a physical presence, e.g., Washington, and has submitted to the jurisdiction of the state.

This has been the biggest cluster**** in recent history. The Democrats running our government are complete morons. Why any business owner would stay here in Colorado is beyond me right now.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:17:39 +0000

People can definitely feel free to modify or replicate, as long as they put their own names on it.

Thank-you for your write-up of this Debra!

Warmest,

Jonathan

By: Debra Zimmer

Debra Zimmer — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:46:46 +0000

@Jonathan, The letter is very well written. Thank you for making it easier to find the contact information. I had a hard time finding it myself. May others edit your letter to send for themselves? It sums things up very nicely.

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:43:30 +0000

All of the email addresses posted below are publicly available online, so I don’t think it hurts for me to post them here. This is a list of the Colorado General Assembly’s email addresses, and the email I just sent them.