July 7 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Seattle on Monday

said tens of millions of users of Amazon.com's ( AMZN ) cloud-based voice

service Alexa can band together in a class action accusing the

tech giant of deceptively recording and collecting their private

conservations.

The Alexa users met the legal threshold to sue in a

nationwide class action for monetary damages and a court order

to stop the alleged privacy violations, U.S. District Judge

Robert Lasnik said in his ruling.

The lawsuit, brought on behalf of users who registered one

or more Alexa devices, alleges Amazon ( AMZN ) violated Washington's

consumer protection law by failing to disclose the retention and

use of recordings for commercial gain.

Amazon ( AMZN ) declined to comment. Lead attorneys for the consumers

did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Class-action status will allow the plaintiffs to pursue

large-scale claims against Amazon ( AMZN ) as a group, as opposed to

filing individual claims.

"The fact that millions of people were allegedly injured by

the same conduct suggests that representative litigation is the

only way to both adjudicate related claims and avoid

overwhelming the courts," Lasnik wrote.

Lasnik declined the plaintiffs' request to certify

additional classes, including for people in California and other

states who lived with someone who had a registered Alexa device.

Amazon ( AMZN ) launched Alexa in 2014 as a virtual assistant that

responds to a command prompt, or "wake" word, such as "hi,

Alexa."

The plaintiffs alleged Amazon ( AMZN ) designed the technology "to

illegally and surreptitiously intercept billions of private

conversations" that extended beyond commands aimed at Alexa.

Amazon ( AMZN ) has denied any wrongdoing in the lawsuit, which was

filed in 2021. The company argued there was no evidence that

Alexa "ever captured any plaintiff's 'conversation' or other

communication." It said it built Alexa with safeguards to

prevent accidental activations.

The plaintiffs are also seeking a court order that would

force Amazon ( AMZN ) to destroy any existing recordings and related

data.

The case is Kaeli Garner v. Amazon.com ( AMZN ), U.S. District Court,

Western District of Washington, No. 2:21-cv-00750-RSL.

For plaintiffs: Michael Canty of Labaton Keller Sucharow and

Paul Geller of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd

For Amazon ( AMZN ): Jedediah Wakefield and Brian Buckley of Fenwick

& West

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