New York's highest court ruled Thursday the state can collect sales tax from out-of-state retailers, rejecting claims by Amazon.com and Overstock.com that the tax law violates the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause.
The Court of Appeals said in a 4-1 ruling that the 2008 amendment meets the U.S. Supreme Court test that the sellers have "a substantial nexus" with the taxing state. Taxes apply when the online retailers generate at least $10,000 in annual sales to New Yorkers from in-state websites that earn commissions by bringing in potential customers through links to the big retailers.
Amazon.com, with corporate offices in Washington state, has an "Associates Program" where others put such links on their websites. Overstock.com, based in Utah, suspended its similar "Affiliates" program in New York after the state statute was enacted.
New York's sales tax is 4 percent and all its counties and New York City add an additional tax ranging from 3 percent to near 5 percent. Both apply to applicable Internet sales, according to the state Department of Taxation and Finance.
A proposed settlement in a class-action lawsuit brought by retailers and trade groups against Visa Inc. and MasterCard Inc. fails to protect merchants from abuse by credit card companies, a national retail group says.
The lawsuit, which dates to 2005, centers on the subject of swipe fees — charges banks collect every time a Visa or MasterCard is used to pay for a purchase.
The proposed settlement terms, initially disclosed in July, were revised and filed Friday with U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
But changes to the deal failed to win over many of the retailers represented by the National Retail Federation.
In a statement Mallory Duncan, the trade group's general counsel, said that the proposed deal does virtually nothing to protect retailers or their customers, and it attempts to silence any objections for years to come.
"Retailers would rather take their chances in court than accept this one-sided swindle written by the card industry for the card industry," he added.
The National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, is not a party to the lawsuit.
In a statement Friday, Visa called the settlement a fair and reasonable compromise.
Under the proposed settlement, stores will be allowed to charge customers more if they pay with a credit card. The pact covers only U.S. transactions.
Apple Inc. on Monday gave a federal judge a list of eight Samsung Electronics Co. products it wants pulled from shelves and banned from the U.S. market, including popular Galaxy model smartphones.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh asked for the list after a jury in San Jose last week slammed Samsung with a $1.05 billion verdict, finding that the South Korean technology giant had "willfully" copied Apple's iPhone and iPad in creating and marketing the products. Samsung plans an appeal.
The products Apple wants out are all smartphones: Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.
Koh on June 26 banned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the U.S. market after finding it likely violated a "design patent." Samsung is now asking for that ban to be lifted after the jury found the computer tablet didn't infringe that particular patent, but it did find it infringed three Apple's software patents that cover the popular "bounce-back" and pinch-to-zoom features.
The judge has scheduled a Sept. 20 hearing to discuss Apple's demands for the sales bans. She asked Apple on Friday to submit the list of products its wants removed from U.S. stores after Samsung complained that it doesn't have enough time to prepare for the scheduled hearing.
