Amazon’s updated terms of service now contain a clause that may take many subscribers by surprise. The online giant is revoking your right to file a class-action lawsuit against it if a dispute arises, according to its Conditions of Use page.

On Friday, Amazon sent an email to subscribers explaining that it will now settle any disputes via arbitration. Customers who have continued to use the corporation’s services after Aug. 14 implicitly waived their rights to bring new class-action suits against the online retail giant.

The language used in the Conditions of Use page states this new legal limitation outright.

“You and we agree that any dispute or claim relating in any way to your use of any Amazon service, or to any products or services sold or distributed by Amazon or through amazon.com, will be resolved by binding arbitration rather than in court,” the document reads. “There is no judge or jury in arbitration, and court review of an arbitration award is limited. A neutral arbitrator will resolve the dispute or claim and must follow the terms of this agreement as a court would.”

A class-action waiver is also included, which prevents customers from filing requests for arbitration together. Although Amazon is allowed to resolve batches of arbitration proceedings under detailed mass arbitration rules, each dispute must be filed individually.

Amazon’s language frames the change as a positive for its customers, since the company pledges to “pay most of the cost” for customers who choose to arbitrate disputes.

A representative for Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A company spokesperson told CNET’s sibling site PCMag over email that Amazon has and will continue to “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,” the spokesperson wrote.

But at the end of the day, that arbitration clause may serve to stifle customer disputes by making it more difficult to seek financial restitution.

The big takeaway: Receiving compensation from Amazon may be harder

There are very few exceptions to Amazon’s new arbitration clause, and none of them are particularly great for customers. You can still take the company to small claims court, but the compensation you can receive is extremely limited.

Before the terms of service update, it only took one motivated individual to perform research, consult legal professionals and get the ball rolling on a class-action lawsuit. From there, other affected parties were able to sign on and receive compensation with comparatively little effort.

That’s not the case with an arbitration policy, which has a higher bar for individual effort and personal costs that may dissuade many customers from hashing out their financial disputes.

Before any arbitration proceeding can be filed, customers must submit a dispute claim to Amazon itself, giving the company 60 days to resolve it. If Amazon doesn’t respond during that two-month window, you can move on to the actual arbitration process.

Filing an official complaint with JAMS, Amazon’s chosen third-party arbitrator, requires you to pay a $250 fee upfront, which is a financial hurdle that the average class-action member likely won’t or can’t be bothered with.

From there on, “a neutral arbitrator will resolve the dispute or claim and must follow the terms of [the Conditions of Use] as a court would,” according to Amazon. “The arbitrator shall issue a written award that states the disposition of each claim and provides a concise statement of the essential findings and conclusions on which it is based.”

If you’re keeping a running tally of every hurdle presented to customers by the arbitration clause, you’ll realize that this process demands more time and money than any class-action lawsuit settlement claim does.

Technically, a critical mass of maligned customers could initiate mass arbitration and be compensated with more money than would ever be awarded to them in a class-action lawsuit. In fact, Amazon previously revoked an arbitration clause in its terms of service in 2021, after 75,000 people simultaneously filed disputes alleging Alexa was recording them without their consent.

Now, the e-commerce giant is trying to force customers into individualized claims once again, likely betting that the legal red tape of the arbitration process will put off many affected customers from ever fighting for financial restitution in the first place.

Existing lawsuits aren’t governed by the new legal language

The terms of service update only limits US Amazon customers from proposing new class-action suits, which means any case filed prior to Aug. 14 will be allowed to proceed.

That means a bevy of existing lawsuits, including separate cases that allege Amazon purposefully shortened the lifespan of its first- and second-generation Fire TV Sticks and violated the privacy of millions of Americans through Ring camera AI features, will still have their day in court.

The e-commerce giant recently settled a $2.5 billion class-action lawsuit that alleged it had used deceptive “dark patterns” to push customers into paying for Prime subscriptions, before making it intentionally difficult to cancel the recurring charge.

Amazon admitted no wrongdoing as the case concluded, but more than $1.5 billion was earmarked to refund customers after legal fees were paid out. A costly, high-profile case like this one may have been part of the reason why the company changed its terms of service.

Changes to Amazon’s subscriber agreement won’t insulate the company from litigation by government agencies, so it will still be subject to lawsuits filed by the US Federal Trade Commission.