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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Earlier this year, a number of individuals brought a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington against Washington-based company Wyze Labs, Inc (Wyze), which manufactures “smart” home...more
Timothy Hidalgo sued the Amateur Athletic Union of the United States Inc. (AAU) on behalf of a purported class for damages emanating from a data breach suffered by the AAU. The court granted the AAU’s motion to compel...more
A California Court granted Defendant’s motion to compel arbitration based on a duly formed and consented arbitration clause via a “clickwrap” agreement, despite Plaintiff’s argument that no contract was ever formed because...more
The court granted Aetna’s motion to compel arbitration of a former employee’s age and disability wrongful termination claims that alleged violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Americans with Disabilities...more
The Northern District of Illinois recently denied a motion to compel arbitration in a putative class action, and in doing so found that the defendants failed to show that the plaintiff had agreed to arbitrate the dispute when...more
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
Courts throughout the country continue to express skepticism over, and go to lengths to deny the enforceability of, arbitration provisions in consumer online agreements. A recent example from the New York Supreme Court for...more