Class Action Waiver

What is a class action waiver?

A class action is a lawsuit where one or a few people sue on behalf of a large group with the same complaint. A class action waiver is a clause where you give up that option. You agree to bring claims against the vendor only as an individual.

The waiver often travels with an arbitration clause. Together they mean each customer must bring a separate private case. Grafana's terms (section 19.3) even say that if the waiver is struck down, the whole arbitration provision is void.

A real change we caught

Venpo flagged the change when Amazon brought back arbitration five years after dropping it. Amazon's Conditions of Use now say that US customers can no longer bring class actions against Amazon. Under the new terms, dated August 14, 2026, when lawyers working together file 25 or more similar demands within six months, they are grouped into batches of at least 25, with bigger batches when more are filed.

Why it matters to you

Many vendor problems are small for each customer but large in total, such as a billing error of a few dollars per account. Alone, a claim like that is rarely worth bringing. A class action is how such claims get heard. A waiver removes that route.

Even without a class action, groups of customers can still file many individual cases at once. Vendors have responded with batching rules, like Zoom's process for large groups of similar demands (section 27.7) and Amazon's batches described above.

What to check

• Find the waiver, often in the dispute section next to arbitration, and check whether it arrived in a recent notice of changes.
• Check whether an opt-out from arbitration also removes the class action waiver.
• Look for mass arbitration or batching rules that affect how group claims are handled.
• Check whether the waiver also covers court cases, if the arbitration clause does not apply.

Jury Trial Waiver

A jury trial waiver is a clause where both sides give up the right to have a jury decide a dispute. If a case goes to court, a judge decides it alone.

You will often find it in the same section as arbitration. Zoom's terms (section 27.5) say both sides "waive any constitutional and statutory rights to sue in court" and to a jury trial, except for disputes the terms carve out. Other vendors leave it out: the Salesforce MSA we read sends US disputes to courts in San Francisco and contains no jury waiver.

A jury waiver matters most when arbitration does not apply, for example after you opt out or for claims the arbitration clause carves out. Then the waiver decides whether a judge or a jury hears your case. Check the governing law clause as well, since it names the state law and the courts that would hear the case.

How Venpo helps

Venpo monitors your vendors' terms of service and website terms and emails you when a class action waiver, jury waiver or arbitration clause is added or changed. The alert explains the change in plain English, in time to use any opt-out window.