We previously wrote about a California federal district court decision in Heckman v. Live Nation Entertainment that denied Ticketmaster’s motion to compel arbitration of Sherman Act antitrust claims based in large part on the...more
As reported in Public Citizen’s Consumer Law & Policy Blog, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently agreed to review Chilutti v. Uber Technologies, Inc., in which a divided panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court (and later...more
9/6/2024
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Burden of Proof ,
Contract Terms ,
Enforceability ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Jury Trial ,
Motion to Compel ,
Online Contracts ,
PA Supreme Court ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Uber
We previously wrote about an Illinois federal district court order requiring Samsung to pay about $4 million in arbitration fees in connection with 35,000 individual arbitration demands filed as part of a “mass arbitration”...more
In a recent unpublished memorandum opinion in a putative class action, Carpenter et al. v. Opportunity Financial, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld an arbitration clause in an agreement governing...more
Currently, California trial court proceedings are automatically stayed when a party appeals an order denying a motion to compel arbitration. However, on October 10, 2023, Governor Newsom signed California Senate Bill No. 365...more
We previously wrote about a Ninth Circuit appeal dealing with the use of bellwether procedures to resolve mass arbitration claims brought by thousands of customers against Verizon Wireless. That appeal remains pending and is...more
8/15/2023
/ Antitrust Violations ,
Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
Bellwether Verdicts ,
California ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Motion to Compel ,
Oral Argument ,
SCOTUS ,
Sherman Act ,
Verizon
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision that an appeal of the denial of a motion to compel arbitration automatically stays lower court proceedings pending the outcome of the appeal. The decision in Coinbase,...more
6/26/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Automatic Stay ,
Coinbase ,
Coinbase Inc v Bielski ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Griggs v Provident Disc Co ,
Interlocutory Appeals ,
Motion to Compel ,
Online Platforms ,
Preemption ,
SCOTUS ,
Stays
Last week, a California federal court granted Google’s motion to compel arbitration of claims asserted by customers who alleged that their Fitbit watches burned their skin. The opinion in Houtchens v. Google found that the...more
Last Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review whether an appeal of the denial of a motion to compel arbitration automatically stays proceedings in the lower court pending the outcome of the appeal, or whether the lower...more
An appeal pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is poised to decide whether an arbitration agreement that requires mass arbitration disputes to be resolved by multiple rounds of bellwether arbitrations...more
Recently, a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held in Zirpoli v. Midland Funding, LLC that an arbitrator, not the district court, must decide whether class action claims brought against Midland...more
The U.S. Supreme Court today held that waiver of the right to arbitrate does not require a showing that the other party was prejudiced. The unanimous opinion by Justice Kagan in Morgan v. Sundance reversed the Eighth...more
Recently, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reexamined when use of a website can bind a consumer to hyperlinked “terms and conditions” containing an arbitration provision that the consumer never saw or read. Affirming the...more
On June 15, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer and White Sales, Inc. to decide a question that has divided the federal circuit courts and state supreme courts: “whether a provision...more
6/18/2020
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitrators ,
Certiorari ,
Contract Terms ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Henry Schein Inc v Archer and White Sales Inc ,
Judicial Review ,
Motion to Compel ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Wholly Groundless Doctrine
A group of small businesses and their individual owners have filed a putative class action lawsuit in a New York federal district court against online lender Kabbage, Inc. that alleges Kabbage engaged in a “rent-a-charter”...more
10/10/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Commercial Loans ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Contract Terms ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financing ,
Loan Agreements ,
Loans ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Compel ,
Putative Class Actions ,
RICO ,
Small Business ,
Statutory Violations ,
UDAP ,
Unconscionable Contracts ,
Usury
Last week, the Ninth Circuit upheld the district court's grant of a motion to compel individual arbitration in a case that "tests the outer limits of what constitutes a 'reasonably conspicuous' provision" in an online...more
In yet another example of the strong federal policy favoring arbitration embodied in the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), U.S. District Court Judge Joel Slomsky of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania granted employer FC...more
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on January 15 dealt a blow to employers in transportation industries, ruling that those workers—including those classified as independent contractors—are exempt from the Federal...more
1/18/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Commercial Truck Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Motion to Compel ,
New Prime v Oliveira ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Reaffirmation ,
SCOTUS
Deciding an important gateway arbitration issue that has divided the circuits, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires courts to enforce arbitration agreements that delegate questions...more
1/10/2019
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Arbitrators ,
Contract Terms ,
Exceptions ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Henry Schein Inc v Archer and White Sales Inc ,
Judicial Review ,
Motion to Compel ,
Question of Arbitrability ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Wholly Groundless Doctrine
Ruling in a class action brought against Uber Technologies, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit recently held that the company's arbitration clause could not be enforced because it was not "reasonably...more
7/3/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Click-Through Nexus ,
Conspicuous Publication Rule ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Dismissals ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Compel ,
Online Contracts ,
Terms of Service ,
Uber
Addressing an important contract-formation issue that has divided federal courts, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania recently denied a company's motion to compel arbitration because the consumer...more
In A.D. vs. Credit One Bank, N.A., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a district court order compelling individual arbitration of a putative class action for Credit One's alleged violations of the...more
3/28/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Banking Sector ,
Class Certification ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Contract Terms ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Motion to Compel ,
Non-Signatories ,
Putative Class Actions ,
TCPA
In a recent decision pitting the Bankruptcy Code against the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a creditor could not compel arbitration of a debtor's class action claims...more
3/27/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Banking Sector ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 7 ,
Charge-Off ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Credit Cards ,
Credit Reports ,
Creditors ,
Debt Buyers ,
Dischargeable Debts ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Motion to Compel ,
Putative Class Actions
Adding more complexity to the issue of arbitration contract formation, the Ninth Circuit has rejected Samsung's attempt to compel individual arbitration of fraud claims asserted by plaintiffs in two class actions. Ruling in...more
1/25/2017
/ Arbitration ,
Cell Phones ,
Class Action ,
Consent ,
Contract Terms ,
Fraud ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Mobile Devices ,
Motion to Compel ,
Opt-Outs ,
Samsung ,
Smartphones ,
Warranties ,
Wireless Devices ,
Wireless Industry ,
Wireless Technology
Perhaps overshadowed in the raging battle over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's proposal to ban the use of class action waivers in consumer arbitration agreements involving consumer financial products or services is...more
8/10/2016
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Clickwrap Agreements ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Mobile Apps ,
Motion to Compel ,
Privacy Policy ,
Registration ,
Sharing Economy ,
Terms of Service ,
Uber