Barnesandnoble.com, LLC (BN Online), is an Internet retailer of books, movies, and music. The company accepts orders from customers across the country, including in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, and fills these orders through a national distribution system that has no physical presence in Louisiana, except for the use of third-party carriers like UPS and FedEx that deliver goods from out-of-state ordered online. The company did not maintain a mailing address or telephone number in Louisiana. It had no employees in Louisiana and owned no tangible property in Louisiana. From January 2001 through October 2003, Barnes & Noble, Inc., owned 40 percent of BN Online. Between October 2003 and May 2004, Barnes & Noble, Inc., owned 80 percent of BN Online through a wholly owned subsidiary. Between May 2004 and December 31, 2005, Barnes & Noble, Inc., owned 100 percent of BN Online through a wholly owned subsidiary, B&N Holding Corp. Barnes & Noble, Inc., also wholly owned Barnes & Noble Booksellers, Inc. (BN Booksellers). BN Booksellers owned and operated retail stores throughout the country, including one in St. Tammany Parish, under the brand name "Barnes and Noble." The BN Booksellers retail outlet in St. Tammany Parish was located in the City of Mandeville. Although the two companies were both owned, in whole or in part, by the same parent corporation, BN Booksellers and BN Online did not share management, employees, offices, and other important elements of their businesses. In October 2005, the St. Tammany Parish Tax Collector sued BN Online in a Louisiana state court for sales taxes that BN online failed to collect on sales to Louisiana residents from 2001 to 2005.
Did the court order BN Online or one of its owners to pay the sales tax?