Netflix Inc. and Hulu LLC fought in federal court Monday to prevent the formation of a massive class of Ohio municipalities seeking to extract up to 5% of revenue that streaming services receive from cord-cutting residents.
The hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio is a proving ground for whether companies that offer streaming services can be taxed in the same way as cable companies that use the wires in cities’ and towns’ right-of-way. In that sense, the case could expose popular streaming services to multimillion-dollar tax bills across states where towns impose fees on ...