08-17-26 By Michael Robinson | Uvalde Hesperian News followed by commentary As construction continues on its new last-mile warehouse on land purchased from the City of Uvalde on March 2nd, Amazon notified its existing customers on August 14th on its Conditions of Use and Amazon Prime Terms & Conditions.

The following message was received as a text message from Amazon: "Amazon: We have updated our Conditions of Use and Amazon Prime Terms & Conditions, effective August 14. The updated terms include (i) a mandatory pre-arbitration dispute resolution procedure, (ii) an arbitration agreement and class action waiver, and (iii) changes to the applicable law. Please read the full updated terms, including the arbitration agreement, here: https://a.co/d/0cKoMGOB and https://a.co/d/0b9WnuFM. As always, your continued use of any Amazon service constitutes your agreement to the Conditions of Use. Thank you for choosing Amazon. " The updated terms effectively limit customers' legal recourse for disputes to binding arbitration and prohibits a group of customers from utilizing a class action lawsuit.

According to an article from the Graduate School of Stanford Business it states: "It's the "mandatory arbitration" clause, and it's in contracts that cover trillions of dollars of business. In the event you have a dispute with the company, it says, you agree in advance to surrender your right to sue and to submit your grievance to a supposedly neutral private arbitrator. Almost every financial firm insists on mandatory arbitration, but so do legions of businesses in other realms: AT&T and Verizon, Amazon and Apple, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, even Spotify and Shazam. Now, a new analysis of almost 9,000 arbitration cases from the securities industry confirms what many have long suspected: The system is biased against consumers - and not just because big companies have more money to spend on lawyers. When it comes to arbitration, the study finds, companies have a big information advantage in fishing for arbitrators who are likely to rule in their favor. Making matters worse, the arbitrators themselves know that being pro-company in one case greatly increases their chances of being picked for future cases." On February 18th, Jessica Breaux, Amazon's senior manager of economic development replied.