At 38 Loyola Consumer Law Review 183 (2026). Here’s the abstract: The second Trump Administration has waged war against consumers and against the federal agencies that seek to protect consumers. It has tried to shut down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, expand the President’s authority to exert iron-fisted control over agency directors, and significantly shrink the federal workforce that in the […]
Category Archives: Arbitration
Yesterday, U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA) wrote to Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, calling on the bank to immediately remove its recently added forced arbitration agreement, hamstringing consumers’ legal rights and denying them the ability to hold corporations accountable. “The new forced arbitration provision will […]
The survey was conducted by the Goldberg Law Group. Only 16% of Americans say they read every word of a contract. I very much doubt it’s even that high. Almost certainly some of the people who said they read every word were too embarrassed to say they didn’t. For example, when I polled consumer financial […]
The last few years have had several decisions from state and federal courts of appeals addressing when “clickwrap” or “browsewrap” arbitration agreements are enforceable. “A clickwrap agreement requires a user to check a box or click a button to acknowledge acceptance of the agreement’s terms and conditions,” and “a browsewrap agreement contains hyperlinked terms, and […]
by Brandon Ballou. It’s available here. Ballou also has a guest essay in the Times, He Signed Away His Right to Sue by Subscribing to Disney+. Excerpt from the essay: * * * In small claims courts, consumers win as often as 89 percent of the time. Before the two leading U.S. arbitration providers, consumers […]
Story here. It was in Canada. I suppose it was inevitable given how many others have relied on AI-hallucinated citations without checking. I suspect it has happened in the US as well, though perhaps without anyone knowing. Of course, if arbitrators don’t write opinions but merely ask AI questions and don’t verify the cites, no […]
In 2020, Congress passed the No Surprises Act to protect medical consumers from surprise bills when they received emergency treatment, only to later discover the doctor did not accept their insurance. The Act established a process by which, rather than bill patients directly, out-of-network doctors and insurers would engage in mandatory arbitration. Today, the NY […]
The case is Stephens v. Am. Arb. Ass’n Inc., No. CV-25-01650, 2026 WL 878981 (D. Ariz. Mar. 31, 2026). Here’s a paragraph from the opinion on the antitrust claim: With regard to the first element of Plaintiffs’ claim under § 2 of the Sherman Act— monopoly power in the relevant market—the AAA states in its […]
Last year, four consumers who were parties to arbitration agreements in which the sole choice of forum for dispute resolution was the American Arbitration Association sued the company under the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust acts, the Arizona Constitution, and state antitrust and unfair and deceptive practices laws. They alleged monopolistic practices, and that “the AAA […]