Supreme Court's E-Commerce Ruling Could Help Amazon
Shares of online retailers Wayfair, Overstock, eBay, and Etsy all tumbled Thursday after a landmark decision by the Supreme Court took away one of the key advantages some e-commerce companies had over traditional retailers.
And one of the biggest winners from that ruling, maybe ironically, could be Amazon, said Tom Forte, managing director at research firm D.A. Davidson.
"This now gives Amazon\[, which already collects sales tax,\] insurance against there not being a Jet.com-like start-up using the sales tax advantage against them," he said.
Up until the high court's ruling Thursday, retailers were not required to collect sales tax from consumers unless they had a physical presence in the shopper's state. The loophole sprang out of a 1992 ruling, well before the rise of digital commerce, which specifically applied to mail-order retailers.
That decision did allow for the then-nascent e-commerce industry to grow in the early days of the internet, but Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion that it was now outdated.
Subjecting all online retailers to the same rules as brick-and-mortar, though, may not ultimately help the mom-and-pop shops that have struggled most in the shift to online, Forte said, "unless they're a mom-and-pop focused on big ticket items."
"If you could buy a computer at Circuit City for $1,000 and on Amazon for $1,000 and not pay sales tax, it gave you an incentive to buy on Amazon."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/supreme-court-gives-states-a-win-against-e-commerce).
Authorities on Thursday were trying to determine who sent letters filled with fentanyl or other substances to local election offices, an attack that appears to have targeted multiple states in the latest instance of threats faced by election workers around the country.
The White House said Israel has agreed to put in place four-hour daily humanitarian pauses in its assault on Hamas in northern Gaza starting on Thursday, as the Biden administration said it has secured a second pathway for civilians to flee fighting.
Columnist and political analyst Jonathan Harris joined Cheddar News to break down what stood out from Wednesday's third Republican presidential primary debate.
Mississippi's largest county ran out of ballots during Wednesday's governor's election as some voters say they had to wait for up to an hour for new ballots to be printed before they could cast their votes.
Republican presidential candidates used the third debate of the GOP primary campaign to show their support for Israel and display at least some willingness to criticize Donald Trump.
The National Zoo's three giant pandas, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji. on Wednesday began their long trip to China, leaving behind an empty panda exhibit with no certainty that pandas ever would again take up residence there.
Palestinians living in the heart of Gaza’s largest city said Wednesday they could see and hear Israeli ground forces closing in from multiple directions, accelerating the exodus of thousands of civilians as food and water become scarce and urban fighting between Israel and Hamas heats up.
