Opinion: Marketplace Fairness Act is not Fair to the Marketplace

December 23, 2014

The Hill recently published an opinion piece from Drexden Davis, CEO of Scrapbook.com and a cofounder of the eMainStreet Alliance, a grassroots coalition of more than 700 small online businesses that came together to express opposition to the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA). In the article, Davis explained how many small businesses would be impacted by the MFA.

“How many businesses would the Marketplace Fairness Act harm? If you listen to MFA proponents, it's hard to know because they change the number depending on the audience”, wrote Davis. “When the software companies that would make the government-mandated software talk to potential investors, as FedTax founder David Campbell did in a recent video, they claim up to 3.5 million businesses would be forced to integrate the software. The true figure is somewhere between these two numbers, but clearly significant. These are real Americans who would face regulatory headwinds and costs that the Big Retailers would not.”

However, Davis went on to write that due to the efforts of Speaker of the House, John Boehner (R-OH) and House Judiciary Committee Chairman, Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), the MFA did not pass the House this Congress. “Boehner and Goodlatte should be praised, not kicked around, for their commitment to a fair and level playing field, not one that favors Big Retail at the expense of small businesses. In fact, more representatives should stand up to Big Retail and embrace Goodlatte’s seven principles that would establish a fair solution to the remote-seller sales-tax collection issue.”

To read Davis’ opinion piece, please visit The Hill.