A French court has upheld an earlier ruling to fine Amazon France €1,000,000 for each day it ships non-essential goods from French warehouses but gone even further saying that they would fine Amazon France €100,000 for every non-essential product shipped from their French warehouses until they carry out a risk assessment of their warehouses.
Announcing the intention to fine Amazon France €100,000 for every non-essential product shipped, the Versailles Court of Appeal specified just a few products Amazon France can continue to ship:
- Tech for IT and Office
- Pets
- Beauty, Health and Well-being
- Food and Drinks
Immediately on the first ruling being handed down, on the 16th of April Amazon shut their French warehouses and furloughed their staff and started to fulfil consumer’s orders from other EU warehouses. The new ruling orders Amazon to start their risk assessment all over again so there is no prospect of Amazon France opening up their fulfilment business any time soon. Amazon had put measure in place, but unfortunately French law requires a business to discuss measures with staff and Unions which they hadn’t done. French Unions are not only requiring physical measures such as sanitation to be in place, but are also demanding mental well being strategies to cater for anyone that says they’re scared of becoming sick or have other worries during the crisis.
Amazon response
Amazon have tweeted that they are “currently assessing the implications for our sites as well as for our employees and customers in France and also for French small businesses which rely on Amazon for their sales”.
Mais également pour les TPE et PME françaises qui comptent sur Amazon pour développer leur activité.
— AmazonNewsFR (@AmazonNewsFR) April 24, 2020
International Merchants with Amazon France FBA stock impacted
There are wider implications than for just French businesses (who have our every sympathy). Any Amazon merchant who’s stock is located in Amazon France warehouses will have lost access to it and be unable to sell it and unable to retrieve it. This will include UK merchants who sent stock to Amazon France as well as merchants who use FBA Multi-Country Inventory (MCI). If you have stock in France, having been locked up for a week it’s now quarantined for the indefinite future until Amazon are able to pacify the unions and restart operations in their French warehouses.
Employee impact at threat to fine Amazon France
Not everyone is happy, as well as the punitive impact on small businesses, there are plenty of Amazon France staff worried about their jobs and eager to go back to work. Whilst the Unions are all powerful in France, not every employee agrees with them in this case.
One thing is for sure however and that is that the threat to fine Amazon France won’t have great long term consequences. Amazon have the capacity across the EU to ship from multiple countries for next day delivery and French workers will doubtless see future Amazon warehouses that might have been built in France instead being built in neighbouring countries. It’s not surprising that employees are concerned about keeping their jobs long term in France.
5 Responses
£100k per item? Amazon will appeal every case with copy and paste lawyers that will prove every order is essential in right circumstances
Have the French courts also done this to C-Discount, who also have there own forfillment operations in France???
I’m an FBA Pan -EU seller based in France – €1.1 million t/o last year. Orders have nose dived from France and significantly dropped from other EU countries. We’ve started using Merchant fulfilled but it’s less profitable than FBA. Fortunately, there’s plenty of money in the bank (thanks to years of FBA) to ride it out for an indefinite period and to take up the opportunities that might arise post COVID.
I’m amazed Amazon didn’t see the issue with consulting the Unions. In my experience, US companies tend to ride it roughshod over Unions – but this is France. As they’ve seen – that doesn’t work here. But with their money that doesn’t bother them either. I reckon the strategy is to let the employees and third part sellers squeal in the hope that it might prompt Union reform. It won’t.
Non story, 100k fines issued and paid Zero !