Icelandic Parliament References Pomp

Icelandic media has reported that Iceland's Parliament has established a working committee to research improved cross-border mail order commerce and has cited a lecture given in January by Professor Richard Pomp. Professor Pomp traveled to Iceland to confer with government officials about challenges they face collecting a value-added tax on items purchased outside the country via the Internet. His trip was sponsored by the US Embassy.

Here is the text from the article:
Eleven MP’s from four political parties have submitted a parliamentary resolution to allow the Prime Minister to establish a working committee which would research the development and regulations on mail order commerce in Iceland and abroad and to make suggestions on changes in laws and other arrangements to create a fair competitive environment in mail order commerce for the benefit of the consumers and local businesses. The first speaker on the parliamentary resolution is MP Mordur Arnason, Social Democratic Alliance.

In a report that accompanied the resolution, which parliamentarians from the Social Democratic Alliance, the Left Green Movement, the Movement and the Progressive Party support, says that even though mail order commerce diminished in the latter part of the 20th century for various reasons, mail order commerce and interest in mail order has risen again in the last two decades, especially with the rise of the internet.

The article references a lecture in January by Richard Pomp, a law professor at the State University of Connecticut in the U.S. about mail order commerce.  His findings were that mail order commerce was underdeveloped in Iceland. Regulations that hinder internet commerce negatively influence the consumer but give Icelandic companies only short-term protection, for consumers find other ways, legal - like the well known shopping trips abroad - or illegal, such as organized shipments of “gifts” from abroad.
Therefore it is proposed  to start reforming this area. (http://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2012/02/23/vilja_starfshop_um_postverslun/ )

Watch an interview with Professor Pomp on Kastljós, Iceland's equivalent of 60 Minutes.

Professor Pomp is the Alva P. Loiselle Professor of Law. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan and a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. He has taught at Harvard, NYU, Texas, and Boston College. In addition, he has been a Distinguished Professor in Residence, Chulalongkorn Law School, Bangkok, Thailand, and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Tokyo Law School and at Harvard Law School.

From 1981 to 1987, Professor Pomp was director of the New York Tax Study Commission, a period during which New York restructured its personal and corporate income tax, and created an independent tax tribunal. Professor Pomp serves as an expert witness in various courts throughout the country and as a litigation consultant to law firms, corporations, accounting firms, and state tax administrations. He has participated in various capacities in Supreme Court litigation.

Professor Pomp currently serves on the State of California's Commission on the 21st Century Economy.