On Monday, the Circuit Court for Cook County in Illinois issued an eagerly awaited order explaining its bench decision on April 25, which declared Illinois’s “click-through nexus” law unconstitutional (Performance Marketing Ass’n v. Hamer, No. 2011 CH 26333 (Ill. Cir. Ct. Cook Cty. 5/7/12)).
The order found that the law (35 Ill. Comp. Stat. 105/2), which expanded the definition of retailers obligated to collect sales tax to those having a contract with a person located in Illinois who refers potential customers through a link on the Illinois person’s website (a so-called click-through connection), violated the Commerce Clause and (by violating the federal Internet Tax Freedom Act, P.L. 105-277) the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
