'So Sue Us': Amazon Responds To 75,000 Customers Who Say Alexa Spied On Them
'So Sue Us': Amazon Responds To 75,000 Customers Who Say Alexa Spied On Them
BY TYLER DURDEN TUESDAY, JUN 01, 2021 - 09:00 PM
After receiving more than 75,000 individual complaints that it's Alex-powered Echo devices were spying on them, Amazon has abandoned its policy that such complaints must be resolved outside the court system via secretive arbitration proceedings, and will instead allow customers to file lawsuits, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In other words, 'so sue us.'
The company quietly changed its terms of service to file
lawsuits, as the company already faces at least three class action suits -
including one brought May 18 alleging that the company's Echo devices were
recording people without permission.
The
retail giant made the change after plaintiffs’ lawyers flooded Amazon with more
than 75,000
individual arbitration demands on behalf of Echo
users. That move
triggered a bill for tens of millions of dollars in filing fees,
according to lawyers involved, payable by Amazon under its own policies.
Amazon’s
decision to drop its arbitration requirement is the starkest example yet of how
companies are responding to plaintiffs’ lawyers pushing the arbitration system
to its limits. -WSJ
Arbitration agreements are typically buried in the fine print in
order to avoid costly litigation, while many employers use them for
adjudicating issues such as discrimination complaints or pay disputes. The
right to require arbitration has been repeatedly upheld by the US Supreme
Court.
During private arbitration, less evidence is presented and there
are no appeals - with companies typically agreeing to pay for initial filing
fees ranging between $100 and $2,000. The proceedings are managed by companies
that charge additional fee, while the arbitrators themselves will of course bill
for their time.
According to consumer advocates and plaintiffs' lawyers,
arbitration usually makes it financially worthwhile for individuals to pursue
claims, while companies say it's a fair process.
"Companies thought they were getting out
of liability altogether," with arbitration clauses, says
Chicago lawyer Travis Lenkner, whose firm filed the majority of the Amazon
claims. "Now they’re seeing exactly what they bargained for, and they
don’t like it."
The
mass-arbitration filings have forced companies to
scramble. Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc., and TurboTax maker Intuit Inc. have all tried to
avoid paying filing fees or direct claims back into court after being hit in
recent years with thousands of arbitration claims.
Few
companies so far seem ready to scrap
arbitration outright like Amazon.
Instead, some are requiring employees to speak
to a lawyer at the company before filing an arbitration claim. One
arbitration provider created a mass-claim protocol that calls for handling a
few test cases before the full filing fees come due. -WSJ
Claims against Amazon began pouring in after it was revealed in
2019 that Alexa devices were storing recordings of users without
their consent. When consumers filed for class action lawsuits claiming that the
recordings violated consent laws, Amazon was able to successfully argue that
the claims belonged in arbitration. In early 2020, Keller Lenkner and other
firms filed tens of thousands of individual arbitration demands.
One year later, Amazon's attorneys notified plaintiffs'
attorneys of their recent change in terms of service - eliminating a 350-word
arbitration requirement and replacing it with two sentences which say disputes
can be brought in state or federal court near Amazon's Washington state
headquarters.
Local attorneys are surely buzzing with excitement.
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