AWS UAE Fire Shuts MEC1-AZ2 Zone, Amazon India Drops Fees on 125M Items
An object strike in AWS’s UAE MEC1-AZ2 Availability Zone sparked a fire that forced a power shutdown—impairing EC2 instances, EBS volumes, database services and networking APIs—with no estimated restoration time. Amazon India will drop referral fees on over 125 million products under ₹1,000 from March 16 to attract sellers in tier-2/3 cities.
1. AWS UAE Fire and Outage
On Sunday, a fire triggered by objects striking AWS’s UAE MEC1-AZ2 Availability Zone forced the local fire department to cut power—including backup generators—disrupting EC2 instances, EBS volumes, database services and networking APIs in the Middle East region without a restoration timeline.
2. Amazon India Zero-Referral Fee Expansion
Starting March 16, Amazon India will eliminate seller referral fees on over 125 million products priced under ₹1,000, expanding its zero-fee policy beyond the previous 12 million items to boost merchant adoption among small businesses in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.