Legal

State officials in Tennessee are raising questions whether Amazon.com should start collecting sales taxes from state customers. The company is building three distribution centers in the state and some legislators believe Amazon should begin collecting sales taxes there.

The British Retail Consortium has set out the demands along with calls for a supportive and expedient planning process to repair any damage caused by the violence and the formation of effective local partnerships to kick-start those communities blighted by the troubles.

As the Dodgers operate under bankruptcy protection, its merchandise vendor has asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for protection from the team. With Dodger Stadium merchandise revenue down 25 percent this season, Facility Merchandising Inc. could face a "business-threatening event" if the court doesn't intervene on its behalf, the company attorneys wrote in a court filing.

Self-proclaimed "Spam King" Sanford Wallace turned himself in to the FBI for allegedly compromising half-a-million Facebook accounts and flooding their owners with junk email. Wallace returns to face 11 counts of fraud, intentional damage to protected computers and — potentially the charges with the longest-term impact — criminal contempt for violating more than a decade's worth of court orders to stay off social networking sites and stop sending junk email, spyware and phishing scams to consumers.

Amazon is using the foot traffic generated by conventional stores to fuel an effort to maintain its price advantage over them. Meanwhile, brick-and-mortar retailers are defending California's sales tax law.

Apple has gone on the offensive against a number of defendants, including 50 John Does and unnamed businesses, in a new trademark infringement suit. The lawsuit filed in New York remains under a court seal, so the specifics of the complaint aren't known.

If you work for Amazon, the tax obsession means you need permission to visit certain states, and might not be able to send certain emails when you get there. In some instances, you won't even be able to identify yourself as working for Amazon.com. Amazon employees have been shown a color coded map of "bad states," according to the Wall Street Journal, and been made to consult with company lawyers before visiting any.

Congress is wading into the roiling dispute between states and giant internet retailer Amazon.com over collecting sales taxes on online purchases. On Friday, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced legislation that would require internet-only retailers to add sales taxes to customers' bills, just as their competitors with brick-and-mortar stores do. Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) plans to introduce a similar measure in the House.

Although Amazon’s critics have identified a real problem, their solution is a mistake. They want an Amazon tax that replaces one type of unfairness with others and imposes costs on the economy out of proportion with any revenue it might generate. There’s a better solution, although not one that proponents of the Amazon tax like.

Groupon has fired back in the latest lawsuit against it, saying claims that its daily deals are in violation of consumer protection laws are “manufactured" and "not real.” Attorney Robert Foote filed a lawsuit in March on behalf of Adam Dremak, arguing that Groupon’s daily deals are in violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, which prohibits expiration dates of less than 5 years on gift certificates.