Amazon.com vs. States - associates lose
June 29th, 2009 by John Dilbeck
I’ve already made my decision about being dropped as an Amazon associate (along with all the others in North Carolina). I don’t care what happens. I’m done with Amazon.com.
Others, especially those who earn a lot more from Amazon.com than I do, disagree. They’re still trying to fight the NC proposed tax legislation, and/or they’re moving out of NC to continue their business in a different state.
I don’t intend to keep posting about this topic, but I just learned that Amazon.com associates in Rhode Island are facing what I just went through, and other states are considering something similar.
I’m not going to do the research to write a comprehensive article about this, so let me link to three stories that you may want to read if you’re an associate with Amazon.
What Makes Affiliate Tax (aka “Amazon Tax”) Unconstitutional
Amazon terminates North Carolina affiliates - be sure to read the comments, too.
So, there it is.
Don’t be surprised if affiliate marketing continues to get more difficult in the near future.
Act on your dream!
JD
This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 1:17 pm and is filed under Affiliate Marketing, Amazon, Opinions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Yep - I got my notice today that I’m no longer an affiliate. Jokes on them though because I haven’t made any money from it. What I really worry about is who will follow their lead..
Tim Linden´s last blog ..Where Did You All Go?
June 29th, 2009 at 2:05 pm
Good afternoon, Tim.
Welcome to our discussions.
I agree with you. I’m worried about who else will drop all their affiliates on a state-by-state basis. This could have even more serious repercussions.
Act on your dream!
JD
June 29th, 2009 at 6:47 pm
Wow, people are really moving out of NC just to keep doing business with amazon?
Deneil Merritt´s last blog ..Flashback Monday – Good News, Great News, & Killer Whale Arms?
June 29th, 2009 at 8:51 pm
Good evening, Deneil.
I don’t know what he has decided, if anything, but @Rich Owings said earlier today that he was meeting with his attorney to discuss corporate dissolution and moving out of NC.
I suspect, but don’t know for sure, that he’s not the only one. Some people earn pretty big money from Amazon - or at least they did.
Act on your dream!
JD
June 29th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
Hi John,
Though I never was an affiliate of Amazon, you know how I feel about affiliates dropping people because they live in certain states. That’s been happening to me since last year, and I’m just glad that not all of my affiliates have dropped me.
I really don’t blame Amazon on this one, though. The states have gotten greedy since the financial crisis hit. I expect to see more things coming as time goes by, especially if things don’t get any better.
Mitch´s last blog ..Social Media, SEO And Your Business in 90 Minutes
June 29th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Thanks for answering my question. Yeah, I didn’t think about those people that make that much money that moving is the best option.
Deneil Merritt´s last blog ..Flashback Monday – Good News, Great News, & Killer Whale Arms?
July 2nd, 2009 at 2:16 am
Yes not looking good, not hit us yet in the UK but were not usually far behind you guys.
bigknd´s last blog ..Spreading the Free People Search Word
July 5th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
These new and proposed tax laws will have many unintended side effects that will affect both affiliates and merchants.
For merchants, it will mean greatly-more-complicated accounting and tracking, plus collecting and paying sales taxes to states in which they actually have no physical nexus. This is probably unconstitutional.
(I am not a lawyer and don’t want to be one. Do not take this as legal advice or anything other than a rant by a disgruntled small business owner.)
As I’ve said, even though I live in NC, none of my websites are hosted on servers located in NC, so do I really have a physical-presence in the state when it comes to affiliate marketing?
That aside, is a commission-only marketing rep in a state really a nexus? What’s the difference between paying me a commission and placing a classified ad in a newspaper printed and distributed in NC? Will a paid ad eventually be considered a nexus and will the states try to collect sales tax as a result?
This is going to get messy.
The only thing that will resolve this issue will be when the Supreme Court issues a ruling or the US legislature passes laws that affect all the states and not just a few of them.
After all, this concerns interstate commerce and should fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, not the individual states.
Still, I hold Amazon.com responsible for what they did. No matter what happens in the future, they’ve lost me as an affiliate and a customer.
It just galls me at this point whenever I think that I have thousands of links sending them potential customers and it’s going to take weeks to find and remove all of them.
It looks like I’ll probably be getting out of the affiliate marketing business this year.
Sigh.
Act on your dream!
JD