Amazon closes warehouses in France, tries to make US shoppers buy less

Enlarge / An Amazon logistics center in Bri(C)tigny-sur-Orge, France, on April 13, 2020. (credit: Chesnot | Getty Images)

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 a1 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 Fri(C)di(C)ric Duval told The Wall Street Journal. "But is this what the judge thinks is a hygiene product? I don't know."

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments