Cite as: 504 U. S. 298 (1992)
Opinion of White, J.
tive price advantage in selling products free of use taxes, and yet not have to collect such taxes if it lacks a physical presence in the taxing State. The majority clings to the physical-presence rule not because of any logical relation to fairness or any economic rationale related to principles underlying the Commerce Clause, but simply out of the supposed convenience of having a bright-line rule. I am less impressed by the convenience of such adherence than the unfairness it produces. Here, convenience should give way. Cf. Complete Auto, supra, at 289, n. 15 ("We believe, however, that administrative convenience . . . is insufficient justification for abandoning the principle that 'interstate commerce may be made to pay its way' ").
Also very questionable is the rationality of perpetuating a rule that creates an interstate tax shelter for one form of business—mail-order sellers—but no countervailing advantage for its competitors. If the Commerce Clause was intended to put businesses on an even playing field, the majority's rule is hardly a way to achieve that goal. Indeed, arguably even under the majority's explanation for its "Commerce Clause nexus" requirement, the unfairness of its rule on retailers other than direct marketers should be taken into account. See ante, at 312 (stating that the Commerce Clause nexus requirement addresses the "structural concerns about the effects of state regulation on the national economy"). I would think that protectionist rules favoring a $180-billion-a-year industry might come within the scope of such "structural concerns." See Brief for State of New Jersey as Amicus Curiae 4.
IV
The Court attempts to justify what it rightly acknowledges is an "artificial" rule in several ways. See ante, at 315. First, it asserts that the Bellas Hess principle "firmly establishes the boundaries of legitimate state authority to impose a duty to collect sales and use taxes and reduces litigation concerning those taxes." Ante, at 315. It is very doubtful,
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