Amazon’s six fulfilment centres in France will remain closed until May 5, continuing an unprecedented operational shutdown, in a legal dispute over alleged insufficient protection measures for several thousand workers.
On Friday (April 24), the e-commerce giant lost an appeal against a lower court ruling which had led it to halt operations at its fulfilment centres in France from April 16 onwards. This left countless goods and products “trapped” in the closed warehouses.
The original court decision (of April 14) said that Amazon France Logistique had not fulfilled its health and safety obligations to workers and also ordered the company to restrict deliveries to food, health items and medical products in line with French lockdown regulations or otherwise face a daily fine of €1 million.
Upholding this decision, the appeal court in Versailles listed products that Amazon France Logistique is currently entitled to deliver as: groceries & drinks; personal hygiene and health items; pet supplies; and “hi-tech/IT/office”. The company could be fined €100,000 for every single delivery of “non-authorised” goods not on this list, the ruling stated.
Amazon had responded to the original decision by saying that it was "perplexed" by the ruling in view of its measures to protect workers and it needed to close the centres temporarily in order to carry out health evaluation checks. But the company also claimed it would be very difficult to restrict orders to certain types of goods only due to its “complex logistics activities”.
In response to Friday’s verdict, the company said on Twitter that the decision was not “in the best interests of the French (population), our workers and thousands of French small businesses that rely on Amazon to develop their activities”.
In addition, it warned that even a low 0.1% amount of “accidental processing” of non-authorised products could lead to a fine “of more than one billion euros per week”.
“Unfortunately, this means that we have no other choice than to extend the temporary suspension of the activity of our French distribution centres while we evaluate the best way to operate in view of the Appeals Court decision,” Amazon said. The warehouses will be closed until May 5.
But the company added: “Our customers can still order several million products from independent companies who sell on Amazon and through our global logistics network.”
Amazon’s operational network in France comprises a total of 22 logistics facilities, including the six large fulfilment centres, four regional sorting centres and a dozen local delivery depots. The company employs about 9,300 workers at these facilities.
