Amazon.ca Is A-Ok
from the nothing-wrong-here dept
It turns out that despite all the hubbub over the legality of Amazon’s Canadian site, Amazon.ca, Canadian officials have decided that there’s nothing illegal going on, after all. It seems, despite all the controversy (and making Jeff Bezos stay north of the border for longer than expected), Amazon did follow the letter of the law in setting up a Canadian online book store.
Comments on “Amazon.ca Is A-Ok”
A-Ok?
To paraphrase Clinton, looks like it depends on what the meaning of ‘no office or employees in Canada’ means – remember, Tyco and Accenture were ‘Bermuda Corporations’ after the lawyers were done!
According to reports, Amazon.ca is run by a Canadian general manager (moved to Seattle of course!), stores its books in Canada, fullfills its orders out of Canadian government warehouses using Canadian government employees of a hastily formed Canadian subsidiary of a Canadian subsidiary of the Canadian post office, accepts payment in Canadian dollars, and was formally launched in Toronto.
A report today says that the Canadian Booksellers Association plans to ask for an investigation into Canada Post’s involvement in Amazon’s Canadian operation. According to the CBA, “There are Canadians who have invested millions of dollars into their businesses and play by the rules and they basically said that Canadian laws and rules do not apply to a foreign competitor…We are not against competition, we are against bad behaviour. And this is bad behaviour.”