After settling a long-running tax dispute (running into 200 million euros) with French tax authorities in February this year, the online retail giant is keen to offer 2,000 jobs in the country. The increase in headcount will bring Amazon’s total number of permanent French staff to 7,500 in 2018. The country is incidentally Amazon’s largest market after Britain and Germany. Meanwhile, the Seattle-based retailer is also discussing a possible grocery supplying deal with privately held French supermarket operator Systeme U. The news comes to light after French President Emmanuel Macron has been working on making it easier for foreign businesses to operate in the country, and had inaugurated the Amazon logistics centre in northern France last year. Data from Euromonitor International suggests that online retail has grown in France by more than 10% in each of the past five years. No doubt then, that Amazon has been investing heavily in Europe. The retailer has been steadily bolstering its presence in France. Amazon has been running its Prime Now express delivery service in Paris since 2016. It also has five logistics centres across the country with plans to open a 1,42,000 sq ft delivery warehouse this year. Its purchase of Whole Foods last year had prompted the speculation that the European food and supermarket sector was next on its radar. In 2016, it had partnered with grocer BIO c’ Bon and wine merchant Lavinia on a limited grocery shopping service for Prime members in Paris. Meanwhile, Carrefour has announced its plans to cut 2,400 jobs in France and boost e-commerce investment worth 2.8 billion euros in digital retail by 2022, apart from seeking a partnership in China with Tencent as competition from Amazon peaks in Europe. The company said that it had reached an ‘overall settlement agreement with the French tax authorities on past issues, and our main objective remains to provide the best possible buying experience for our customers in France, where we have invested more than two billion euros since 2010 and created more than 5,500 permanent jobs’.

— Ananya Saha