Not really. Businesses that sell essential goods (the ones allowed by the court order) are still operating. The others would too, if they could. They don't have the deep pockets that Amazon has to try and override the sovereign decisions of a democratic republic.
How is Amazon overriding the sovereign decisions of a democratic republic in this case? AFAICT they are obeying the sovereign decisions of the French court. Overriding would be the "sloppy compliance" approach advocated upthread. The court did not order Amazon to stay open, and even if they did I doubt that would be a legal order according to France's own laws.
> How is Amazon overriding the sovereign decisions of a democratic republic in this case?
They are not, but they are aiming at leveraging their near-monopoly status to create public outrage against the decision. What else would motivate their decisions to forego profit on the allowed product categories? I am assuming we are all intelligent adults here, no need to spell out everything...
You can say what you want about Amazon, but they always take the long-term view when it comes to profits.
> What else would motivate their decisions to forego profit on the allowed product categories?
Let's look at the situation. First, there's the added cost of complying. Second, there's a risk that even with a good faith attempt, they would not be able to comply, and thus there could be fines. Third, by restricting what can be sold, the order may have diminished Amazon's revenue and profits. So it could very well be that under the order it is not profitable for Amazon to operate its warehouses in France.
> They are not, but they are aiming at leveraging their near-monopoly status to create public outrage against the decision.
Maybe it's a bad decision with bad consequences, and that is what would cause any outrage. Maybe there won't be any outrage after all, since the French apparently have solidarity with the workers in these warehouses? I don't see any evidence that Amazon is artificially inflating their response to generate outrage.
That’s not what’s happening though. This is a negotiation tactic. They want you to think that compliance demands of the court has made are unreasonable. If that is so, what other shipping companies or other large essential firms are also having these problems?
I don't doubt they do lack those funds, but if all it takes for a company to override the sovereign decisions of a democratic republic is "ceasing to do business," said democratic republic has bigger problems.
It wouldn't surprise me if alcohol sales are up. People are stuck at home with nothing to do. The aftermath of this is going to be disastrous in so many ways.
