Advocacy

2015 Andrew Carnegie fiction, nonfiction medal winners to be announced on Saturday; ReadingGroupGuides.com launches 2015 Book Group Survey; Inkshares allows stores to create their own imprints; We Need Diverse Books welcomes new members to Advisory Board, Executive Committee; 2015 New England Society in the City of New York Book Award winners announced

In a letter to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, ABA CEO Oren Teicher called on the nation’s mayors to include indie retailers in any discussions on increasing the minimum wage in their cities.

On Monday, June 29, at 6:30 p.m. ET, the Alliance for Main Street Fairness, a coalition of small business owners, local retailers, and Main Street supporters, will be hosting a conference call to discuss the Remote Transaction Parity Act.

“Home Sweet Home,” a new study from Civic Economics for Independent We Stand and the North American Retail Hardware Association, shows that purchasing through locally owned home improvement stores generates twice as much local economic activity than shopping at a chain store.

[words] Bookstore in Maplewood, New Jersey, was one of just 10 businesses in the U.S. to receive the Ruderman Best in Business Award, which spotlights businesses and employers who hire and support people with disabilities.

ABA’s updated E-Fairness Map provides visual proof that more states than not are taking strides to level the playing field for Main Street retailers.

On Monday, June 15, Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and Steve Womack (R-AR) joined with a bipartisan group of legislators to introduce the Remote Transactions Parity Act, a bill that gives states the authority to require remote sellers doing $10 million or more in gross annual receipts to collect and remit sales tax to the states.

On Thursday, June 11, the European Commission (EC) opened a formal antitrust investigation into “certain business practices by Amazon in the distribution of e-books.” 

Post-BEA report points to rising attendance; Publishing industry survey reports $28 billion in revenue in 2014; We Need Diverse Books announces publishing internship grant winners; Additional winners announced at PEN Literary Awards Ceremony; Simon & Schuster to distribute Gallup Press; Bookmasters signs international sales and distribution agreements; Lerner partners with Quarto Library

The two auctions of children’s book art that were held in conjunction with BookExpo America raised almost $60,000 to defend the free speech rights of kids, the American Booksellers for Free Expression reported on Wednesday.

Last week, Left Bank Books co-owner Jarek Steele wrote a blog post highlighting the challenges small business owners face regarding minimum wage.

On June 8, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, a bill that would both permanently prohibit states from taxing access to the Internet and prohibit taxes on bandwidth and e-mail, according to media reports. 

Amazon began collecting sales tax on purchases made by Ohio residents on Monday, June 1; however, the decision to collect is part of deal to build data centers in the state that includes millions in tax subsidies, as well as land and tax deals.

Though marketplace fairness legislation was not on Tuesday’s formal agenda for the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial, and Antitrust Law, members of Congress and key witnesses made clear that it remains the top issue for Congress to address on state taxation issues.

The U.S. Senate approved the USA FREEDOM Act (H.R. 2048) by a vote of 67–32 on Tuesday, June 2. The bill had already passed the U.S. House of Representatives by an overwhelming vote.