Amazon.com "fired" more than 4,000 affiliates on Monday. Affiliates, often small businesses and individuals, earn money by using their Web sites and blogs to link customers to online retailers. Many of the Colorado affiliates terminated by Amazon.com have lost hundreds of dollars in monthly income as a result of Amazon's actions.

The reasoning behind Amazon.com's decision to terminate Colorado affiliates is not clear. Amazon.com claims they were forced to terminate their Colorado affiliates because of a newly enacted Colorado law that imposes "burdensome" sales tax regulations on Amazon.com.

Amazon.com issued a letter to Colorado affiliates on Monday, March 8th, stating that "The new regulations...are clearly intended to increase the compliance burden to a point where online retailers will be induced to 'voluntarily' collect Colorado sales tax -- a course we won't take."

Amazon.com has terminated affiliates in other states in the past. However, Colorado's situation is unique. In previous instances of Amazon.com terminating affiliates in New York, Rhode Island, and North Carolina, lawmakers in those states defined affiliates as part of a "physical nexus," arguing that local affiliates were essentially agents of Amazon.com. In those situations, Amazon.com was forced to either begin collecting sales tax or fire all of their affiliates to avoid the issue.

Colorado's new law, however, does not have such a rule. According to a statement issued by Senator Rollie Heath (D-Boulder), the sponsor of the legislation, local affiliates were specifically excluded from the bill. Heath believes that Amazon's decision to fire their Colorado's affiliates is political.

Senator Rollie Heath states that "[we] went to great pains to protect local affiliates... Now, Amazon is firing innocent people to make a point." Heath is critical of Amazon.com's corporate bullying, stating "this multi-billion dollar corporation has decided to throw its weight around by firing its small, Colorado-based affiliates."