Internet Commerce

On Thursday, February 26, a group of Virginia-based independent booksellers wrote to their state leaders to urge them to enforce existing sales tax laws by requiring Amazon.com to collect and remit sales tax for sales made in Virginia. Amazon.com operates two facilities, a fulfillment center and data center, in the state.

On Wednesday, February 11, the ABA E-Commerce Solution announced the start of the migration of all store websites to Drupal, an "open-source" Content Management System (CMS). A small number of stores have been beta testing the new platform over the past several months.

On Wednesday, January 14, Sarah Pishko of Prince Books in Norfolk, Virginia, was the focus of a front-page news story in The Virginian-Pilot regarding her e-fairness efforts.

A provision in the proposed 2009 - 2010 New York State budget, unveiled by Gov. David Paterson on December 16, would significantly expand the definition of affiliate nexus for online purchases. The affiliate nexus statute is one of the ways in which Gov. Paterson is looking to close an estimated $15.4 billion budget deficit.

California's Board of Equalization (BOE) and Barnes & Noble have finalized their agreement over sales taxes owed by Barnesandnoble.com. B&N will be required to pay the state approximately $9 million in back taxes, plus penalties and interest, for failure to collect and remit sales tax, as previously reported in Bookselling This Week.

Olsson's to File Chapter 11 With creditors filing claims against the store's inventory, coupled with increased overhead, Olsson's Books & Records plans to file for Chapter 11, founder John Olsson announced on Friday, June 27, as reported by the Washington Post. The Washington, D.C. landmark has shut its Penn Quarter store and is evaluating its five remaining locations, the article noted.

The latest column by Wall Street Journal writer Lee Gomes takes a close look at what he characterizes as "an audacious legal strategy Amazon.com has used to avoid collecting sales tax" in some states where it has warehouses or distribution centers.

Last week, New York State asked Overstock.com to consolidate its lawsuit challenging the state's Internet Sales Tax provision with an earlier suit filed by Amazon.com. The case, which will be heard in New York Supreme Court, is slated to begin on Monday, July 7.

Inventory uploads now free With the launch of IndieBound last Thursday at BookExpo America, the Book Sense marketing program has been replaced with a program that's more of a movement than a marketing campaign, and this means changes for the BookSense.com program. First and foremost, BookSense.com is not part of IndieBound, and it has been renamed the ABA E-commerce Solution. This will be visible in several ways:

In a significant victory for California's independent booksellers, the state's Board of Equalization (BOE) and Barnes & Noble have settled two cases regarding the collection of sales and use taxes on sales made by Barnesandnoble.com. On Thursday, May 29, the California BOE affirmed and approved a settlement that has B&N paying a settlement of approximately $9 million.