Amazon has shut down all six of its distribution centers in France for the time being following a ruling by a French court that it was not taking sufficient measures to protect its warehouse workers from COVID-19.
The court
ruled Tuesday that Amazon must stop selling "non-essential" items in France by Wednesday or face a fine of €1 million (about $1.1 million) per day until it comes up with a stronger plan to protect the health of its employees. While the ruling allows the company to keep sending items such as food, medicine, and "hygiene products," company executives said the mandate was too broad to interpret. "Is a baby bottle a hygiene product? Yes, I think so," Amazon executive Frédéric Duval told The Wall Street Journal. "But is this what the judge thinks is a hygiene product? I don't know."
The suit was filed by a group of French worker unions who alleged conditions inside Amazon's warehouses were insufficiently safe for dealing with COVID-19. Amazon filed an immediate appeal to the ruling, saying at the time, "We disagree with today's decision by the Nanterre court and are currently assessing its implications for our French logistics sites. We will also continue to work with all stakeholders and provide the necessary clarifications as we have done since the beginning of this unprecedented crisis."
