Amazon Has a Europe Problem: Unions and Regulators Are Circling
After a French court ruling that the company can sell only essential items during the pandemic, unions see an opportunity for further gains.
A delivery man wearing a protective mask carries an Amazon box in Paris on April 15.
Photographer: Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images
Bloomberg’s daily technology newsletter is chronicling the impact of Covid-19 on the global tech industry. Sign up here.
In Germany, unions are pushing Amazon.com Inc. to prevent warehouse workers from congregating like bunches of “grapes” before their shifts. In Italy, where a Covid-19 outbreak hit Amazon’s main logistics depot, unions staged an 11-day strike that ended after the company granted employees an additional five-minute break to practice better personal hygiene. And in what amounts to the most significant pushback yet, a French appeals court on April 24 upheld an earlier ruling ordering Amazon to sell only essential products in the country to protect the safety of warehouse workers.
At Seattle headquarters, some senior Amazon executives expressed concern that the original French court order would set a precedent, according to a person familiar with the discussions. They feared it would require expensive, manual curation of Amazon’s millions of product listings and prompt regulators and governments to impose similar restrictions on the company in an effort to keep essential goods flowing while protecting workers. That explains why Amazon took the unprecedented step of closing its French operations.