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[IN] REA CPR ECM
[SU] AVO LEG LAW
TO LEGAL AFFAIRS, NATIONAL, AND RETAILING EDITORS:
RILA: WayFair Decision a Win for Retailers, Free Markets and Fair Play
ARLINGTON, Va., June 21, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Retail
Industry Leaders Association (RILA), the trade association for
America’s largest and most innovative retailers, released a statement
celebrating today’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, a case that
focused on a decades-old loophole that allowed online-only retailers
to skirt collecting and remitting state sales tax. RILA and its sister
organization, the Retail Litigation Center (RLC), worked on a
years-long strategy to support the case in South Dakota and build a
robust amicus strategy at both the cert and merit stages of the case.
“Today’s decision culminates years of tireless work by the retail
community to reverse a pre-Internet era rule that distorts free
markets and puts local brick and mortar stores at a competitive
disadvantage with their online-only counterparts,” said Deborah White,
General Counsel for the Retail Industry Leaders Association and
President of the Retail Litigation Center. “This was the right case
and the right time for the Court to act, and we couldn’t be more
pleased with the outcome.”
Addressing the suggestion that new collection requirements would be a
burden to start-ups and small online retailers, White pointed to the
dramatic changes in network computing and e-commerce in the last
quarter century.
“The Court clearly didn’t buy the argument made by the Respondents in
this case that remote sales tax compliance represented the same burden
today that it did in 1992,” said White. “Through its decision, the
Court has acknowledged that the same computing sophistication that has
fueled exponential growth in e-commerce has also dramatically
simplified remote sales tax collection.”
Given the Court’s ruling, White expects the forty-five states with a
sales tax to work expeditiously on legislative and regulatory
solutions to close the online loophole in their states.
“States had this authority taken from them decades ago,” said
White. “Most will work quickly and judiciously to reclaim their
authority and create a level playing field for all retailers selling
to customers in their states.”
On the impact of the decision for the retail industry and its
customers, White said today’s decision would ultimately be a win for
both.
“Today’s ruling will give every retailer the opportunity to compete on
a level playing field without government’s thumb on the scale-that’s a
win for all those who believe in free markets,” said White. “For the
consumer, this means an increasing array of options both in-store and
online, with competition for their business based on price, service,
selection and value-not special tax treatment.”
View original
SOURCE Retail Industry Leaders Association
-0- 06/21/2018
/CONTACT: Jason Brewer Jason.brewer@rila.org 703-600-2044
/Web Site: http://www.rila.org
CO: Retail Industry Leaders Association
ST: Virginia
IN: REA CPR ECM
SU: AVO LEG LAW
PRN
— DC34759 —
0000 06/21/2018 14:47:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com