National Norms and Regulations
The patenting system in the USA presupposes strict regulations regarding patent protection in business and other spheres. According to Rustad (2016), Amazon.com received a patent that allowed the company to patent the idea of the affiliation program that was aimed at the owners of the third-party websites who were offered to attract customers to the company’s website for the additional payment. Such a concept was called “one-click” referring.
Another idea that Amazon had implemented using such a “one-click” concept was in the following. A customer had the opportunity to make an order making a single click in the case of having a previously saved credit card number and address. The procedure was patented as well. A federal court decided that such a practice of patenting was not appropriate, considering the previous patents of Barnes & Noble that had very similar procedure implemented in the online stores of the company. Amazon proposed to amend the patenting law and make the terms of the patents active state shorter (Rustad 2016). Strict regulations in this area could have made Amazon.com pursue the idea of penetrating foreign markets.
National Taxes
Amazon.com, as the online retailer, had a focus on global operations from the start of the business operations. The American government has rather clear and simple regulations regarding the taxation of sales. In the case of a company having a brick-and-mortar store in some state, it has to pay both local and national taxes according to the regulations, both local and national. The process of online sales’ taxation seems rather simple, as well.
When the company that sells products online is not present in the state physically, it does not have to collect additional taxes. The presence is determined as follows: it is the physical availability of the brick-and-mortar store, or the company’s storage, or an office. According to Lunder and Pettit (2015), “… With the increasing amount of Internet commerce, states have been motivated to develop new ways – “Amazon laws” – to capture uncollected use taxes, while still complying with the U.S. Constitution” (1). It makes the activities of Amazon fall under the legislation that should have made it go global. The idea was to avoid domestic taxation and generate revenue abroad.
Lobbying at Home and Abroad
One of the most well-known activities of Amazon.com in terms of lobbying its interests in the USA is the famous taxation policy aimed at tax collection in the different states. The company stands for the abolishment of such taxation, as it seems not appropriate to collect taxes for online sales in the states where it is not present physically. Amazon decided to distance itself from the unfair competition practices on the international market, as in the case of its agreement to pay taxes in Europe (News Wires 2015).
However, the company tends to pursue a policy that would allow it to avoid taxes on the domestic market. Additionally, Amazon is against the accusations in the monopolization of the online sales market in the USA, so the company has a strong interest in the control of the legislation in this area. Lobbying activities of Amazon expand on the support of the political parties in both Republican and Democratic camps in the form of donations (Plumer 2013). It makes obvious the efforts of Amazon to support any political power that could help the company to pursue its goals today and in the future.
References
Lunder, Erika, and Carol Pettit. 2015. “Amazon Laws” and Taxation of Internet Sales: Constitutional Analysis.” Congressional Research Service. Web.
News Wires. 2015. “Amazon to Begin Paying Sales Tax in Europe.” France24. Web.
Plumer, Brad. 2013. “Here’s What Amazon Lobbies for in D.C.” The Washington Post. Web.
Rustad, Michael. 2016. Global Internet Law. St Paul: West Academic.