Amazon Tries to Avoid Class Action in California

I spoke with a reporter from Bloomberg BNA yesterday about Jackson v. Amazon.com, Inc. (oral argument 11/17/22). The case raises a number of interesting arbitration issues: whether Amazon’s broad arbitration clause includes a worker’s privacy claim (Amazon was monitoring employee’s discussions on social media), whether a federal court’s decision that an Amazon last-mile driver is a transportation worker within the meaning of the FAA is appealable (where, as here, the parties’ agreement requires that the FAA and federal law should be used to interpret the arbitration clause), and how, if at all, Southwest Airlines v. Saxon, should apply.

Lots of interesting questions — and there is already Ninth Circuit precedent, Rittman v. Amazon, Inc.,  that last-mile drivers are transportation workers and thus exempt from the FAA. If this precedent is followed (and Saxon didn’t reach the question, so I think it will be followed), will the Ninth Circuit dismiss the case for lack of jurisdiction because a decision to exempt a worker from FAA coverage is not immediately appealable?

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