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Amazon customers are furious after the retail giant quietly reinstated a rule that prevents most shoppers from taking the company to court - forcing them into private arbitration instead.
The change took effect immediately on August 14, with Amazon telling customers they agree to the new terms simply by continuing to use its services.
The company also brought back a class-action waiver, meaning customers generally cannot band together to sue Amazon.
That has sparked an angry backlash online, with customers questioning how Amazon can change the terms without giving them a meaningful chance to object.
One Reddit user asked: 'How is this legal? They are a monopoly!' Another complained that Amazon was effectively changing the deal on customers without warning.
'Absolutely insane that companies can just decide you can't use the legal system against them,' another Reddit user wrote.
Under the new rules, customers must generally first attempt to resolve disputes directly with Amazon before taking them to individual arbitration.
They can still use small claims court, but they lose the ability to bring most disputes before a judge and jury or join a class-action lawsuit.
Amazon customers are furious after the retail giant quietly reinstated a rule that prevents most shoppers from taking the company to court - forcing them into private arbitration instead
'We continually update our Conditions of Use to better serve our customers. We determined that reinstating the arbitration clause will offer customers a fast, cost-effective way to resolve disputes while still giving them the option of going to small claims court,' an Amazon spokesperson told the Daily Mail.
The only way for customers to opt out is if customers stop using Amazon entirely. However, lawsuits filed before last Friday can generally still move forward under the old rules.
That includes a proposed class-action lawsuit filed just weeks ago in federal court in Seattle, accusing Amazon of misleading consumers by marketing seafood products as environmentally friendly and sustainable, The Seattle Times reported.
The July 31 lawsuit alleges Amazon used labels including 'dolphin safe,' 'responsibly sourced,' 'sustainable' and 'wild caught' to give shoppers the impression that its seafood caused minimal harm to oceans and marine life. The plaintiffs argue those claims were unsubstantiated or materially false.
But the timing is raising eyebrows because Amazon itself abandoned mandatory arbitration five years ago after being overwhelmed by tens of thousands of individual claims.
In 2021, the company faced roughly 75,000 arbitration claims from customers who alleged Alexa devices had recorded them without their consent.
The sheer volume forced Amazon to pay millions of dollars in arbitration fees and prompted it to scrap the requirement.
Now the company has put arbitration back in place - but with new limits designed to prevent another flood of claims.
Under the new rules, customers must generally first attempt to resolve disputes directly with Amazon before taking them to individual arbitration. They can still use small claims court, but they lose the ability to bring most disputes before a judge and jury or join a class-action lawsuit
Under Amazon's updated terms, 25 or more arbitration cases involving the same issue within six months can be classified as 'mass arbitration.'
Those cases can then be handled in batches of at least 25.
For furious customers, however, the biggest issue may be that the change was effective immediately.
Amazon notified customers by email on Friday and said they would accept the new conditions simply by continuing to use the service.
Companies often provide customers with more advance notice when changing their terms of service, Reuters reported.
The move also means disputes are generally handled privately before a third-party arbitrator, rather than in open court - meaning the details of complaints and settlements typically won't become public.
And that has left some Amazon users wondering what happens the next time the company is accused of widespread wrongdoing.
As one Reddit commenter put it: 'I, personally, would simply not design my products to record people without their consent.'