California Appeals Court Affirms Santa Barbara’s Streaming Tax in Disney Case

The California Court of Appeals, Second Appellate District, Division Six, affirmed the lower court’s judgment in favor of the City of Santa Barbara, ruling that the city’s video users’ tax applies to streaming services. The dispute arose when Disney subsidiaries challenged the application of the tax to their streaming platforms. The court found that the ordinance’s definition of “video services” covers streaming, rejecting arguments that it only applied to traditional cable services. Additionally, the court ruled that the tax does not violate the Internet Tax Freedom Act or the First Amendment, and that voter approval was not required to enforce ...