Streamers Beating Greedy Tax Hungry Cities in Court

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Streamers Beating Greedy Tax Hungry Cities in Court

Post by Admin » Tue Dec 20, 2022 7:23 am

Netflix and Hulu came out unscathed in another state-level court case after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled this week that the streamers aren't "video service providers" under state law and therefore are exempt from paying the same franchise fees that local, facilities-based cable operators and telcos do.

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In a ruling (PDF) handed down November 30, the Ohio court shot down claims lodged by the city of Maple Heights that Netflix and Hulu required authorization from the director of the Ohio Department of Commerce and owed franchise fees (usually 5%) to local governments.

* In April, a Los Angeles judge ruled that the city of Lancaster doesn't have the right to sue Netflix and Hulu over franchise fees that are typically imposed on cable operators. In part, the court argued that the streamers don't own or operate infrastructure on public property.

* In May, the Supreme Court of Tennessee in Nashville also ruled that services such as Netflix and Hulu don't need to pay quarterly, local franchise fees. The Tennessee court shot down the complaint because the streaming services don't construct wireline facilities located in public rights-of-way.

* Last month, Netflix and Hulu prevailed in a similar case centered on a complaint lodged by the city of Ashdown, Arkansas. Notably, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals there ruled that enforcement of the Arkansas Video Service Act of 2013 belongs solely to the state's Public Service Commission... read more
Cities can tax physical equipment on public rights-of-way. But streamers successfully argued since they don't own or lease any physical equipment in the city right of way, their bogus claims which were an effort to extort more revenue from City residents DO NOT apply.

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