RILA praises Quinn for signing e-Fairness Legislation

Arlington, Va. -- The Retail Industry Leaders Association on Thursday praised Illinois Governor Pat Quinn for signing the e-Fairness legislation, which addresses the long-standing inequity in the retail sales industry between brick-and-mortar retailers and their online-only counterparts.



“Governor Quinn has taken a bold step today to help level the playing field for retailers in Illinois,” said RILA president Sandy Kennedy. “Whether a sale happens in a store or online, the sales tax collected should be the same. It’s time to end the special treatment given to online-only retailers.”



Kennedy pointed out that retailers compete on price 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “That competition needs to be on an even playing field,” Kennedy said. “Today, online-only retailers selling into Illinois are not required to collect the sales tax, a decades-old loophole that pre-dates the Internet itself and gives them an arbitrary advantage over stores that operate in our communities.”



With regard to whether or not Amazon and other online-only retailers will fire their affiliates in Illinois to avoid collecting sales tax, Kennedy said that if Amazon “chooses to terminate its relationships with Illinois businesses in order to continue dodging sales tax laws, that’s a short-sighted decision, but it’s Amazon’s to make.”