As previously discussed on the blog, corporate defendants have in several cases refused to comply with AAA’s rules regarding payment when customers invoke their contractual rights and file arbitration demands en masse. Reacting to the complaints of corporate defendants, AAA has now altered its mass arbitration rules to, among other things, drastically reduce the fees […]
Category Archives: Arbitration
At Reuters, reporter Alison Frankel has this story on a recent class-action settlement with Verizon. Verizon (as is typical of cellphone companies) requires customers to agree to arbitrate any disputes that may arise. The settlement avoids appellate review of Verizon’s effort to limit arbitrations to batches of 10 at a time, which, in situations where […]
Here, with Myriam Gilles of Cardozo, Prentiss Cox of Minnesota, and David Vladeck of Georgetown. Excerpt: Perhaps the most consequential documents ever produced in this country are the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution identifies our most important rights, while the Declaration explains why the deprivation of those rights justified the fight for independence. […]
The Eleventh Circuit today weighed in on a matter involving the increasingly frequent scenario of a corporate defendant refusing to comply with the terms of the arbitration agreement it foisted upon consumers. Three consumers who had bought timeshares through Wyndham Vacation Resorts filed claims for breach of contract and fraudulent inducement with the American Arbitration […]
More information here. Here’s an excerpt: Consumers must be given a meaningful opportunity to choose how to proceed when disputes arise. Take-it-or-leave-it terms and conditions imposed in a consumer contract, through use of a product, or by signing up for a service does not allow that opportunity. Restoring consumers’ ability to make the choice about […]
I wrote The FAA Should Not Cover Consumer Claims, to appear in The Federal Arbitration Act: Successes, Failures, and a Roadmap for Reform (Richard A. Bales & Jill I. Gross eds., forthcoming 2024 Cambridge University Press). Here is the abstract: Consumer protection laws face a fundamental enforcement issue: because consumer claims are typically for small […]
As regular readers of the blog know, last month some 160 law academics filed with the CFPB a comment supporting the issuance of a new arbitration regulation (disclosure: I served on the drafting committee). Mark J. Levin & Alan S. Kaplinsky of Ballard Spahr recently posted a critique of the law professor comment on the Consumer Finance […]
Rosario Hernandez sued MicroBilt after a verification report the company issued inaccurately stated she was on a government watch list, leading to her being denied a loan. Citing a mandatory arbitration agreement in her loan application, MicroBilt moved to compel, and Hernandez dismissed her court complaint and submitted her claims to the AAA for arbitration. […]
The Center for Justice & Democracy has published a report titled “Kicked Out of Court in 2023 – 50 Cases Showing the Real-World Impact of Forced Arbitration.” The introduction explains: Mistreatment by tech giants like TikTok. Automobiles and appliances sold with dangerous defects. Nude photos posted online by medical offices. Farms and crops ruined due […]
Reuters’s Allson Frankel has the story here, and also reports on industry opposition. The original petition, as well as the comments, can be read here. Here’s an excerpt from the law professor comment (disclosure: I served on the drafting committee): Multiple studies have demonstrated that consumers do not understand arbitration clauses. In contrast, no study […]