“Hardly Anyone Files Arbitration Claims”

Journalist David Dayen (@ddayen) has written Tech Companies' Big Reveal: Hardly Anyone Files Arbitration Claims. "Responding to Congress," Dayen explains, those companies have "make clear that forced arbitration gives them the means to sidestep the law." Here's an excerpt: 

Some new statistics from the nation’s leading tech firms on arbitration serve as evidence for an argument that critics of the practice have long contended: that forced arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts build barriers to disputing the conduct of large companies. The data, submitted by the tech firms themselves in response to questions from the House Antitrust Subcommittee, are believed to be the first time such arbitration statistics have been provided publicly. They show that a trivial number of employees, customers, and contractors bother to pursue arbitration against the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Apple. Google contractors, for example, initiated a grand total of three arbitration claims between January 1, 2014 and September 1, 2019, less than one per year. Google employees submitted only 11 arbitration claims during that time period.

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