On April 15, 2025, the Ninth Circuit issued a second decision in less than two months regarding the enforceability of a “sign-in wrap agreement,” which links users to a website’s terms of service....more
In recent years, numerous businesses have successfully enforced broad arbitration clauses, particularly those embedded in terms and conditions of online service agreements. We previously discussed a noteworthy example from a...more
On February 27, 2025, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling in Chabolla v. ClassPass, finding that the “sign-in wrap agreement” on the ClassPass website was not an enforceable contract because it did not...more
Proponents of arbitration received a victory in federal court this past Tuesday when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued its published decision in Dhruva v. CuriosityStream, Inc. ...more
A recent Ninth Circuit decision, Chabolla v. ClassPass, Inc., underscores critical considerations for retailers with online Terms of Service / Use agreements, particularly regarding arbitration provisions and related consumer...more
In January 2021, Uber emailed millions of its users informing them that they would be prompted to agree to updated terms of use (available by hyperlinks) in order to continue using the ride-sharing service. The plaintiff, a...more
Just before the 2024 holiday season, in Wu v. Uber Tech., Inc.,[i] New York State's Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, issued a veritable instruction manual for those involved in the online provision of consumer...more
IN THREE COURT DECISIONS IN THE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS, two themes emerged: reading the contract before you sign and understanding the law that applies. In the first case, a court needed to decide which of two contracts...more
Businesses operating public facing websites that employ data analytics software to track users’ website interactions must be aware of a novel use of the California Information Privacy Act (“CIPA”) that has taken the...more
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed the denial of a motion to compel arbitration after concluding, contrary to the district court’s decision, that a “sign-in wrap agreement” provided conspicuous notice of...more
Takeaway: We have written many articles about the use of consumer-facing terms containing mandatory arbitration agreements. “Clickwrap” agreements – agreements that require consumers affirmatively to accept terms – are the...more
Takeaway: We have written many articles about how businesses seek to enter enforceable arbitration agreements containing class action waivers with their customers, whether through “browsewrap” or “clickwrap” agreements or by...more
A district court in the Seventh Circuit recently granted a motion to compel arbitration and stay proceedings in a putative class action involving Hyundai’s Blue Link crash assistance program. Tamburo v. Hyundai, No....more
A state appellate court in California reversed a superior court’s denial of a massage franchisor’s motion to compel arbitration. Jane Doe #1 (I.G.) v. Massage Envy Franchising, LLC, 2023 WL 8801517 (Cal. Ct. App. Dec. 20,...more
Takeaway: Technology advances. Business processes evolve. Internet transactions become increasingly ubiquitous. Contract formation, however, remains an old-fashioned concept. An Internet consumer must, at a minimum, be...more
On April 3, 2023, the New Jersey Appellate Division in Jeffrey Santana v. SmileDirectClub, LLC, Docket A-2433-21, __ N.J. Super. __ ( App. Div. April 3, 2023), issued an opinion enforcing an arbitration provision found within...more
Want to learn more about drafting, negotiating, and understanding intellectual property and technology contracts and have 10 minutes to spare? Grab your morning coffee or afternoon tea and dig into our Tech Contract Quick...more
This week, the Court addresses the enforceability of an arbitration provision in Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s terms of use. OBERSTEIN V. LIVE NATION ENTERTAINMENT, INC. The Court holds that Live Nation and...more
A California appellate court recently affirmed a trial court’s ruling that a customer had not agreed to arbitrate claims against a franchisor when she was presented with a “Terms of Use Agreement” at a franchised location....more
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
A number of U.S. state and federal courts have recently considered whether the manner in which companies presented to their users a variety of electronic contracts (e.g., terms of service) was sufficient to form an...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 March 31, 2022, in Airbnb, Inc. v. Doe, the Florida Supreme Court aligned itself with nearly every federal circuit1 in holding that a “clickwrap” agreement that incorporates arbitration rules expressly delegating...more
Takeaway: Technology advances. Business processes evolve. Internet transactions become increasingly ubiquitous. Contract formation, however, remains an old-fashioned concept. An internet consumer must, at a minimum, be...more
Website owners who seek to bind visitors to the terms of an arbitration agreement must make those terms “reasonably conspicuous” under the law, and website visitors must “manifest unambiguous assent” to those terms. That...more