Sales/Use/Indirect:
Indiana: Streaming Entertainment Companies’ Motion to Dismiss Local Franchise Fee Case is Denied
Cause No. 49D01-2008-PL-026436, Ind. Commercial Ct., Marion County (1/18/22). In a suit filed by various Indiana municipalities against several streaming entertainment companies claiming that they owed local franchise fees imposed on certain video service providers under Indiana law, the Indiana Commercial Court, Marion County, denied the companies’ motion to dismiss, holding among other conclusions that:
The plain language of applicable state law regarding “video service systems” provides for the possibility that an applicant for a franchise may connect with customers directly through technologies that were not contemplated at the time the most recent version of the provisions was passed in 2006, and
Because there is no established requirement in the applicable state law that the companies’ programming travel over permanent fixtures that they placed in the public right-of-way, there remains a possibility that the companies’ video service travels through the public right-of-way and may constitute taxable “video service” under state law.
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