Indigo Books & Music has withdrawn its financial support of its joint application with the Canadian Booksellers Association (CBA) challenging the legality of Amazon.ca's status and right to operate in Canada as an online retailer based outside the country, under the Investment Canada Act. Following the withdrawal of Indigo's financial backing, the CBA discontinued the application last week. CBA and Indigo filed the appeal in August 2002.
At the time of Amazon's Canadian launch in June 2002, the Department of Canadian Heritage determined that the creation of Amazon.ca, with inventory fulfillment by Assured Logistics (a subsidiary of Canada Post) and its Vancouver-based registered domain holder Eamazon (Canada) Inc. did not constitute a Canadian business. A federal court judge was to hear arguments on whether, as the CBA's application for judicial review contends, Amazon.ca was a Canadian business and was therefore operating in violation of Canada's cultural protection laws. The federal court hearing was to have begun May 31.
