Amazon’s Prime Now is the latest on-demand service to anger French officials. After Amazon introduced the express delivery service in Paris last week, that city’s mayor raised concerns about it hurting local business and increasing pollution.
“This operation may seriously destabilize the Parisian trade balances,” the city’s Mayor Anne Hidalgo said on Monday in a press release.
Last week, Amazon announced that it would add Paris to a small list of cities with Prime Now, a two-year-old service that includes delivery of fresh and frozen food, alcohol, toys, and health care products. Customers who have Prime subscriptions can get their orders at not additional cost for two-hour delivery and an extra $7 for one-hour delivery.
In preparation for Prime Now, Amazon built a new distribution center in Paris, which Hidalgo said could create gridlock for people living near the new facility.
“The City of Paris will be intransigent vis-à-vis Amazon,” she said in the release. “The municipality requires the US to be exemplary on its human resources policy, the amounts of pollution emitted by its delivery vehicles and on maintaining the quality of life of people living near storage center located in the eighteenth arrondissement.”
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This isn’t the first on-demand service to face pushback in France. Last year, Uber ceased operations in France after the government moved to shut down ride-hailing apps. Uber has since created an ad campaign to help rally French support.
Hidalgo said that she was notified by Amazon about Prime Now coming to Paris just days before its premiere. She questioned the service’s legality, said that there should be “safeguards” to prevent “unfair competition against traders and craftsmen.”
Earlier this year, Amazon was reportedly in talks to buy French shipping company Colis Privé, however those talks fell through over disagreements with French regulators.
