Comments on: Overstock.com Terminates All NY Affiliates

By: Danny

Danny — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 14:59:51 +0000

Overstock had a lot to say about this in their most recent earnings report. If what they say is true, NYS will be back tracking on this new law. Shame I just placed an order at Amazon and got stuck paying a lot in sales tax. You can see the entire transcript of their earnings report. Just use the search function to get directly to the part about the NY state sales tax. You can see the link below: http://seekingalpha.com/article/85766-overstock-c...

By: Angel Djambazov

Angel Djambazov — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:57:42 +0000

As usual Brian is brilliant in his handling of a tricky situation. I hope that all the networks also come forth with their stance on the issue.

By: Heather Paulson

Heather Paulson — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:43:06 +0000

ShareaSale ANNOUNCES NY Affiliate sales Tracking in their network******

"As a Merchant on ShareASale – there is now a report under the heading of "New York Affiliate Revenue" which will provide you with the data that you need to make decisions." Brian Littleton as posted on Abestweb.com

http://tinyurl.com/5o82u3

bravo, bravo, flexibility is key to maneuvering in any business, great move Brian!

By: Heather Paulson

Heather Paulson — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:22:13 +0000

Hi Angel,

Well ShareaSale's President/CEO Brian Littleton made an announcement today on AbestWeb.com – http://tinyurl.com/5o82u3

I am sure the other networks will be disclosing their policies on this matter soon as well.

Cheers,

Heather Paulson

By: Angel Djambazov

Angel Djambazov — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:15:29 +0000

It's surprising to me that we haven't heard anything out of LinkShare about this situation. Either publicly or directly to their network. Wonder what they will have to say at the upcoming LinkShare Symposium?

By: Michael Coley

Michael Coley — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:21:16 +0000

A couple points:

1) The situation in Texas is different. It's not related to affiliate sales at all. A subsidiary of Amazon.com has a distribution center in Texas. Depending on how that relationship is structured, that would constitute a physical presence under EXISTING law. Likely, it doesn't. But in either case, it's not based on affiliates in Texas.

2) If it's based just on people who get a percent of sales, the AFFILIATE NETWORK (LinkShare) in New York is probably enough of a presence to constitute a nexus by New York's flawed reasoning. They clearly distinguish between commission-based compensation and CPC/CPM, indicating that those who earn a commission are sales reps. Well, guess what? LinkShare earns a percentage, too. Guess Overstock.com better just shut their entire program down.

By: Heather Paulson

Heather Paulson — Thu, 15 May 2008 23:00:24 +0000

Brook – You make a very valid point which I am hoping New York discovers quickly after acknowledging the costs associated with investigating the channels monetization methods..

Dismissing NY affiliates from a program is a hard decision for any merchant to make, this is unfortunate.

By: Shawn Collins

Shawn Collins — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:59:12 +0000

Jeff -

This issue has been simmering since November 2007 – do you know that they made the decision quickly?

By: Brook Schaaf

Brook Schaaf — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:51:43 +0000

Well said, Mike.

This could end up being one of those taxes that actually lose money for the state after decreased revenue, litigation and policing are taken into account.

This is going to hurt the affiliates most of all.

By: Jeff Molander

Jeff Molander — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:20:14 +0000

All good points (including Todd's) but isn't it interesting how quickly Overstock made this decision.