7th Cir. Judges Grill Illinois City on Taxing Streaming Services

Netflix Inc., DISH Network LLC, and other streaming and satellite services faced a more sympathetic Seventh Circuit bench than the city of East St. Louis, Ill., did at oral arguments Tuesday in a case about local franchise fees.

“I don’t think you understand either how Netflix works or how electricity is wheeled across networks,” Judge Frank H. Easterbrook told Melissa K. Sims of Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman PLLC, arguing for the city. Sims argued the streaming services have servers that are attached to the wires that run through the rights of way owned by municipalities across the ...