By James McAuley @ WashingtonPost.com, April 15

PARIS — Amazon said Wednesday it would temporarily close its distribution centers in France, a day after a French court ordered a ban on nonessential sales during the coronavirus pandemic and upbraided the e-commerce giant for providing insufficient protections for its workers.

The court, a tribunal in Nanterre outside Paris, ordered Amazon to limit sales and deliveries to items such as food and medical supplies while the company submitted to a risk assessment and upgraded its health and safety procedures for employees. The decision gave Amazon 24 hours to comply, with a daily fine of 1 million euros ($1.2 million) until it does.

“We must temporarily suspend activities in our distribution centers in France,” Amazon’s French branch said in a statement to The Washington Post, “despite the huge investment that we have made to ensure and strengthen by additional measures the safety of our employees who remained mobilized during this crisis.” [....]