In an email sent to customers on Friday, the retailer confirmed that it is re-establishing a legal buffer it had previously removed five years ago.
This new "arbitration agreement and class-action waiver" requires consumers to settle their legal disputes through private proceedings rather than in open court.
This policy change matters because it restricts the ability of shoppers to pool their resources for large-scale litigation against the retail giant.
By mandating arbitration—a private dispute resolution process—Amazon creates a system where individual complaints are handled outside the public judicial system.
Bloomberg reports that this move is specifically designed to curb the influence of plaintiffs' attorneys and reduce the company's exposure to collective legal challenges.
Under the new terms, shoppers are still permitted to file cases in small claims court, which typically handles minor disputes where financial damages are limited to a few thousand dollars.
However, the broader waiver applies to all major legal grievances.
This mechanism effectively forces consumers into individual negotiations for larger claims, potentially altering how the company manages liability and consumer rights moving forward.