Two problems here.
One is jurisdiction. If the website is not incorporated in Florida, has no offices in Florida, and does not use Florida servers, why should they be subject to Florida law? Everything they do is completely legal in their home jurisdiction.
This sort of enforcement is basically impossible on the internet. If anybody can access any website from anywhere, how is the website supposed to keep up with hundreds or thousands of changing jurisdictions each with their own legal requirements? And why should they have to?
Second is interstate commerce clause of the Constitution. It reserves to the federal government the right to regulate interstate commerce. I would think that demanding that a out of state business change its business practices would fall afoul of that.
Now it could be argued that since the website advertises in Florida and accepts sign ups from Florida residents, that they do business in Florida. However the simple solution there would be to disable payment for Florida residents.
In 2018 SCOTUS ruled that states can require businesses with no physical presence or relationship to a state to collect sales tax for the state, effectively invalidating the Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause. Florida may be hoping this precedent along with a corrupt, illegitimate fascist majority in SCOTUS, will allow states to project their own local laws onto the entire country.
If the customers are still in Florida and they still earn money in Florida, they are still subject to Florida law.
The way they handle conflicting requirements in different regions is to use regional flags. It’s quite simple and it’s been done for a long time in more tightly regulated fields like e.g. online shopping.
If it’s legal to sell weed online in some areas and illegal in others, you can’t just say “Well, our servers are in a region where it’s legal so we send weed all over the world.”
Wait, wouldn’t it be legal for a country with legal weed to send it, just illegal go receive it in a jurisdiction where it’s illegal? Like if I lived in the Netherlands I couldn’t be arrested for mailing it to the US, but it’d get stopped at the border.
Two problems here.
One is jurisdiction. If the website is not incorporated in Florida, has no offices in Florida, and does not use Florida servers, why should they be subject to Florida law? Everything they do is completely legal in their home jurisdiction.
This sort of enforcement is basically impossible on the internet. If anybody can access any website from anywhere, how is the website supposed to keep up with hundreds or thousands of changing jurisdictions each with their own legal requirements? And why should they have to?
Second is interstate commerce clause of the Constitution. It reserves to the federal government the right to regulate interstate commerce. I would think that demanding that a out of state business change its business practices would fall afoul of that.
Now it could be argued that since the website advertises in Florida and accepts sign ups from Florida residents, that they do business in Florida. However the simple solution there would be to disable payment for Florida residents.
In 2018 SCOTUS ruled that states can require businesses with no physical presence or relationship to a state to collect sales tax for the state, effectively invalidating the Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause. Florida may be hoping this precedent along with a corrupt, illegitimate fascist majority in SCOTUS, will allow states to project their own local laws onto the entire country.
So that’s why every site started charging sales tax at the same time. Wonderful.
Yup. When it comes to fucking the people the SCOTUS votes in unison.
If the customers are still in Florida and they still earn money in Florida, they are still subject to Florida law.
The way they handle conflicting requirements in different regions is to use regional flags. It’s quite simple and it’s been done for a long time in more tightly regulated fields like e.g. online shopping.
If it’s legal to sell weed online in some areas and illegal in others, you can’t just say “Well, our servers are in a region where it’s legal so we send weed all over the world.”
Wait, wouldn’t it be legal for a country with legal weed to send it, just illegal go receive it in a jurisdiction where it’s illegal? Like if I lived in the Netherlands I couldn’t be arrested for mailing it to the US, but it’d get stopped at the border.
That’s a perfect analogy, I love downloading weed from websites.
Use illegal pornography instead if you like that analogy better.
Because they offer their services to people living in Florida.
Same reason as to why you should include VAT on your prices if you sell to EU citizens