Amazon Reinstates Mandatory Arbitration for U.S. Customers

Amazon has reinstated mandatory arbitration for its U.S. customers, making it more difficult for people to file class-action lawsuits against the company.

The change took effect on August 14 and states that disputes involving Amazon's services or products will be resolved through binding arbitration rather than in court.

This means new disputes with Amazon will generally have to be handled individually, rather than through a class-action lawsuit. Cases that were already underway before the policy change aren't affected.

The move comes five years after Amazon dropped mandatory arbitration following a flood of individual claims related to allegations that Alexa recorded customers without their consent. The company is also facing another lawsuit accusing it of monitoring customers via Fire TV devices.