So reports PHILIP MARCELO of the Associated Press here. This isn’t the first time a company has changed course in an arbitration demand after adverse publicity. Wells Fargo had actually won a motion to send a case to arbitration arising out of its unauthorized account scandal back in 2016, before settling its class action for more than $100 million. It’s pretty clear that businesses understand that arbitration clauses are seen as unfair and will insist on them only when they can do so without public attention. Which is another argument against arbitration clauses. It’s revealing when businesses take one course in public and the opposite course in private. As Justice Brandeis famously said “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” Arbitration thrives in the shadows.
Arbitration
Disney withdraws arbitration motion in Disney restaurant wrongful death case after bad publicity
The alternative view is that Disney’s aggressive position on arbitration made an unflattering newsworthy item out of an otherwise run-of-the-mill tort case with damaging allegations against a restaurant at Disney Springs. In that sense it was a PR disaster.
Also contributing is the fact that now that the case has been picked up by the media, a ruling against Disney on arbitration (or even for it) could be devastating, just like the dissent in Mey v. DirecTV.