Ebay to Chicago: We Are Not Paying Amusement Tax

U.S. District Court Judge Blanche M. Manning last week dismissed a lawsuit against eBay by the city that claimed the auction Web site is a “reseller’s agent,” which would have made the site liable for collecting the 9 percent (5 percent for many cultural events) amusement tax on resold tickets.

Way to go, Chicago. You greedy bastards.

Hey Harrisburg- maybe we’ll just start selling all of our tickets on Ebay….

4 comments

  1. floor9 says:

    Haha – that’s actually an excellent idea. I wonder if the city would spend any of its non-existing money to fight a decision already rendered?

    Probably yes.

  2. Bearcat says:

    I think that is a grand idea… have you begun looking into that as a possibility? Is it feasible?

  3. moemoephoto says:

    Well the bad news is that Ebay and Paypal will take a LARGE % cut of transactions these days. Mike you’d know better than anyone if the City’s cut is larger than what evilbay and PP would take though.

  4. k2 says:

    as a chicago resident who doesn’t buy tickets on e-bay, i’d rather have the city collect taxes that way than keep raising our parking meters.