Amazon was asked by a French court to restrict its deliveries to essential goods only until an assessment of the epidemic risks can be carried out. The court in Nanterre, near Paris, said in its ruling that “the company obviously ignored its obligations to the security and health of its workers”.

The trade union that filed the complaint last week said Amazon was continuing to work during the pandemic “as if nothing was happening” and decried the situation in the warehouses as a “sanitary and social bomb”.

A delay in implementing the ruling will entail a fine of €1 million for each day of delay, the union said on Twitter. Trade unions have been calling for several weeks for the online giant to shut down its operations in France, saying the measures it has taken to protect its employees are insufficient. (EURACTIV.FR)