reintroduced a clause in its user agreement that seeks to prevent shoppers from filing class-action lawsuits against the online retailer, inserting a legal buffer between itself and plaintiffs attorneys that it removed five years ago. In an email sent to customers on Friday, the company said a new “arbitration agreement and class-action waiver” will require shoppers to resolve disputes outside the courts but said they could still file small claims, cases that typically limit damages to a few thousand dollars. “We continually update our conditions of use to better serve our customers,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We determined that reinstating the arbitration clause will offer customers a fast, cost-effective way to resolve disputes while still giving them the option of going to small claims court. ” Amazon removed a similar clause from its user agreement in 2021 amid a barrage of legal privacy challenges related to its voice-activated Alexa devices.