Amazon brought back arbitration five years after dropping it

The change

Amazon's Conditions of Use now carry the date "Last updated: August 14, 2026." The previous version was dated May 30, 2025. The biggest edit is in the section called DISPUTES. The old section was one paragraph that sent disputes to the courts of King County, Washington. The new one is a full arbitration agreement that opens in capital letters:

"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 Conditions of Use apply to anyone who shops on Amazon.com or uses Amazon's apps, devices, and services, and the opening paragraph says you accept them "on behalf of yourself and all members of your household and others who use any Amazon Service under your account."

What changed

• Arbitration instead of court. Disputes about Amazon services and products sold through Amazon.com go to binding arbitration, with three exceptions, including small claims court.

• No class actions. Arbitration happens "ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT IN A CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION."

• Old disputes included. All disputes outside the exceptions "must be arbitrated, regardless of when they arose."

• A 60-day step first. You must contact customer service, submit a Notice of Dispute on Amazon's claim form, and negotiate "in good faith for 60 days" before you can start arbitration.

• Mass arbitration in batches. When 25 or more similar demands come from coordinated lawyers within six months, they are grouped into batches, and both sides must disclose litigation funding.

• Appeals for large awards. An optional appeal applies to mass arbitrations and to awards of $250,000 or more.

• Local law for injuries. Claims that a product bought on Amazon caused a personal injury or property damage now follow the law of the state where the harm happened, not Washington law.

• Continued use means acceptance. A new sentence says: "By using Amazon Services after such changes, you agree to be bound by them."

Amazon dropped arbitration in 2021

This is a return, not a first. In 2021, the ABA Journal reported, citing the Wall Street Journal, that Amazon had removed its arbitration requirement after facing more than 75,000 pending arbitration demands filed on behalf of Echo device users. The Conditions of Use then said disputes "will be adjudicated in the state or federal courts in King County, Washington," and the version Amazon replaced in August 2026 still said that.

According to the same report, lawyers told the Wall Street Journal that Amazon would have paid tens of millions of dollars in filing fees on those cases. The new arbitration agreement includes a detailed set of rules for mass arbitration, described below.

"Regardless of when they arose"

The arbitration agreement does not stop at problems that happen from now on. After listing the exceptions, it says: "All other disputes, claims, and requests for relief must be arbitrated, regardless of when they arose, which means you and we are each waiving our right to sue in court and have a judge or jury trial."

Read literally, a problem with an order from last year, or with a device bought before August 14, would go to arbitration if you raise it now, unless it fits in small claims court. Value Added Resource reported that lawsuits already pending before August 14 are excluded. That exclusion is not in the Conditions of Use text itself.

60 days before you can file

Arbitration has a mandatory first stage. "If you have a dispute or claim subject to this arbitration agreement, you must first contact customer service to try to resolve it." If that fails, you must complete Amazon's dispute resolution procedure, "including submitting a completed Notice of Dispute using this Claim Form and negotiating in good faith for 60 days."

Only then can arbitration begin: "If you and we do not reach a resolution within 60 days from receiving a notice of dispute or after completing a timely requested settlement conference, whichever is later, then you or we may initiate binding arbitration." If Amazon has a dispute with you that can go to arbitration, it says it will send you the same information at your account's primary email address and follow the same procedure.

The arbitration itself is run by JAMS under its Streamlined Arbitration Rules, with a single arbitrator, and takes place "virtually, in the county where you reside, or in any other location mutually agreed upon." Where the agreement conflicts with the JAMS minimum standards for consumer arbitration, those standards win.

Mass arbitration, in batches of 25, 100, or 500

The agreement defines a "Mass Arbitration" as 25 or more demands filed within six months on the same or similar subject matter, raising common legal or factual issues, where the lawyers for the people filing them "are the same or coordinated in any fashion." In that case, a JAMS administrator groups the demands into batches, and each batch gets "one set of administrative fees and a single arbitrator."

• Batches of at least 25 demands.

• Batches of at least 100 when more than 500 demands are filed.

• Batches of at least 500 when more than 2500 demands are filed.

Both sides must also disclose "all relationships with third-party litigation funders related to the Mass Arbitration and copies of all applicable litigation funding agreements." In a mass arbitration, and in any arbitration with a final award of $250,000 or more, the JAMS Optional Appeal Procedures apply. Awards from other arbitrations have "no precedential or preclusive effect" in yours unless you were a party to them.

What can still go to court

The agreement lists three exceptions. A dispute that "qualifies for small claims court in the jurisdiction in which you reside" can go there. Either side can ask a court for an injunction over intellectual property, or "to restrain future violations of the law for the benefit of the general public as a whole." And disputes about whether the 60-day procedure was followed "must be decided by a court and not by an arbitrator."

Claims an arbitrator rules cannot be arbitrated, requests for injunctions that benefit the general public, and disputes about whether the 60-day procedure was followed "may be brought only in state or federal court in King County, Washington," and both sides "waive any right to a jury trial." Questions about whether the arbitration agreement itself is valid or enforceable go to the arbitrator, who has "exclusive authority" over them.

Injury claims now follow local law

One change can help customers. Federal law and Washington law used to govern "any dispute of any sort" between you and Amazon. The new text adds an exception "for disputes arising from personal injury or physical harm to property allegedly caused by products purchased using Amazon Services. Such disputes will be governed by the law of the state in which the personal injury or physical harm to property occurred." If you claim a product bought on Amazon injured you in Ohio, Ohio law would govern that dispute.

Using Amazon after a change means you accept it

The section on site policies already said Amazon reserves "the right to make changes to our site, policies, Service Terms, and these Conditions of Use at any time." It now adds one sentence: "By using Amazon Services after such changes, you agree to be bound by them." The Conditions of Use do not describe a separate step to accept the changes or to opt out of arbitration.

What did not change

Apart from the injury exception, federal law and Washington law still govern disputes. The ban on using "AI-generated content from the Amazon Services" to develop or improve AI models and the section of rules for AI agents that access Amazon were already in the May 2025 version. The trademark section dropped its link to a list of Amazon trademarks and the sentence calling Amazon's graphics, logos, and service names its trademarks, and the list of example services now names Alexa, Amazon Music, Gift Cards, and Prime Video, with a pointer to the Alexa Terms of Use.

Why this matters

Arbitration clauses are common in consumer terms, and other vendors have added or tightened them this year. PayPal no longer pays the fees for small disputes you bring against it, X added arbitration behind its Texas court clause, and even using Grafana's website now binds you to arbitration. Amazon's change stands out because of its reach and its history. Its terms reach far more people than most vendors' terms do, and since 2021 they had sent disputes to court.

For a company, the clause applies whenever its people buy or use Amazon services under these terms. Amazon is easy to forget as a vendor, because nobody signs anything to buy from it, but its terms still apply. A change like this one is why the documents behind everyday suppliers belong in vendor contract monitoring alongside the contracts that get signed. Earlier this year, Amazon also changed its privacy notice so that it now says it uses data to develop generative AI.

Potential impact

For anyone who buys from Amazon, personally or for work, the update raises five practical questions:

• Do you have an open problem with an Amazon order, device, or subscription that you planned to take further?

• Would that problem fit in small claims court where you live, which is still open to you?

• Do you keep records of orders and customer service contacts, now that a Notice of Dispute and 60 days of talks come before any arbitration?

• Who else uses Amazon under your account, given that you accept the terms on behalf of your household and other users?

• If your company buys on Amazon, does anyone track the terms it buys under?

How Venpo detected it

Venpo monitors Amazon's Conditions of Use and keeps each version it reads. That is how this article can compare the new text with the version dated May 30, 2025, clause by clause, including smaller edits such as the continued-use sentence. Few people reread a retailer's terms of use, and that gap is the difference between manual and automated vendor monitoring.

Business outcome

Teams that track Amazon's documents have the old and new dispute sections side by side, with the exceptions, the 60-day procedure, and the batching thresholds spelled out. That is what a legal or procurement team needs to decide how to handle a dispute over a large order and what to tell employees who buy on company cards.

Key takeaway

Amazon's Conditions of Use send most disputes to individual arbitration again, cover disputes "regardless of when they arose," add 60 days of mandatory talks before filing, and batch mass claims, while keeping small claims court open and moving injury claims to local law. These are the kinds of changes you only catch when you monitor vendor terms of service line by line.