Affiliate Marketing Trade Firm Helps Amazon

Who knew affiliate marketers had a lobbying firm?

I’m not sure they’re registered Lobbyists in Congress yet, but the Performance Marketing Alliance has weighed in on the ‘Amazon.com v. New York’ Appeals Court by filing an amicus brief on the side of Amazon.

If you’re no sure what’s going on I’ll give you a little background. In early July I posted about Amazon terminating affiliates in certain states.

New York State had passed a law saying that an “affiliate” in New York (some poor guy like you with an affiliate product link on his web site) of Amazon.com, Overstock.com, etc. constituted a “physical presence” in their state and was subject to New York State sales taxes that the companies had to collect and pay.

Incredibly, Amazon lost the court case against this in New York. While waiting for the Appeals Court, several other states jumped in with the same kind of laws, causing Amazon to simply terminate affiliates in those states.

Who loses? The affiliates. Also, the states no longer collect income taxes from the profits of those affiliate sales. And of course, the online retailers lose marketers who drive their sales.

Who wins? No one.

Which brings me back to the Performance Marketing Alliance. It’s a not-for-profit trade association that attempts “to connect, inform and advocate” on behalf of affiliate marketers, which they estimate at about 200,000 people.

If you are an affiliate marketer take a look at the Performance Marketing Alliance site. They’re just getting off the ground, but have some basic information and a fall special on memberships.