Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: How to Use the Restatement of Consumer Contracts - A Guide for Judges
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: “Accidental Arbitration” -- A New Theory that Would Rein in Consumer Arbitration Clauses and the Scope of the FAA
OK at Work: Navigating Customer Terms and Usage
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: A Look at the FTC’s Click-to-Cancel Rule, with James Kohm, Associate Director of Enforcement Division of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: A Look at a New Approach to Consumer Contracts
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Reasons Why the CFPB Should Deny the Petition for Rulemaking on Post-Dispute Consumer Arbitration Agreements
On March 11, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration in two class-action lawsuits. The decision potentially has far-reaching implications for the...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
On February 25, 2025, the British Columbia government introduced Bill 4, the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Amendment Act, 2025 (Bill) for the stated purpose of protecting people from “unfair contract terms” and...more
Mass arbitration is posing significant challenges for businesses, as it creates a new battleground in dispute resolution with the potential to overwhelm companies with a flood of simultaneous claims. Consumer-facing companies...more
Earlier this week, the CFPB issued a proposed rule. Among other things, the proposed rule would “forbid covered persons from including in their consumer contracts any terms or conditions that purport to waive substantive...more
Earlier this year, the New Jersey Supreme Court held in Pace v. Hamilton Cove that class action waivers in consumer contracts that do not contain an arbitration clause (i.e., a stand-alone class action waiver) are not per se...more
In Heckman v. Live Nation Entertainment, Inc., a panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision refusing to enforce the Ticketmaster arbitration provision in a purported consumer antitrust class action brought...more
In September 2024, the Seventh Circuit affirmed the grant of a motion to compel arbitration in a proposed class action claiming that Wisconsin-based retailer Menards used a “deceptive bait-and-switch scheme” to charge...more
Join us for the latest episode of Financial Services Focus as Andy Demko and Archis Parasharami discuss how consumer arbitration became popular among U.S. businesses in response to class actions from the late 90s onward. The...more
For more than a decade, companies have benefited immensely from the U.S. Supreme Court's 2011 decision of AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, which upheld a company's right to compel consumers into participating in individual...more
For more than a decade, companies have benefited immensely from the United States Supreme Court decision of AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333 (2011), which upheld a company’s right to compel consumers into...more
We previously reported and released a podcast episode on comments that we and Professor David Sherwyn of Cornell University submitted in opposition to the Petition for Rulemaking filed by a number of consumer advocacy groups...more
The District of Massachusetts’s recent decision in Fairfield v. DCD Auto. Holdings, Inc., No. 22-cv-11977, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109463 (D. Mass. June 26, 2023) serves as a key reminder for businesses not only to have...more
Who owns the family video game console? The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently held that the parents do, even if they don’t play it....more
Introduction - For many of us, fall means football. And regardless of whether your football flavor is the American pigskin variety, or the beautiful game we call soccer in the United States, you can appreciate the...more
A recent Sixth Circuit decision caught my eye because it addressed an important issue on which I have not seen any other appellate decisions (and none were cited in the opinion). The plaintiff argued that the Class Action...more
For many years, companies have required consumers and employees to sign contracts containing arbitration clauses that prohibit them from filing class action claims and require them to waive jury trials. The history of how...more
In Brice v. Haynes Investments LLC, No. 19-15707 (9th Cir. Sept. 16, 2021), the Ninth Circuit considered an appeal by shareholders in Native American tribe-linked online lenders of a district court order denying the...more
Plaintiffs filed a putative class action against Norwegian Cruise Lines claiming that Norwegian failed to disclose profits it earned when the plaintiffs elected to purchase travel insurance during the cruise booking process....more
Arbitration clauses with class action waivers remain one of the most effective tools that consumer-facing companies can employ to fend off consumer class action litigation. Yet many companies stumble both in getting their...more
Seven plaintiffs filed a putative class action against a car rental company and its subsidiary for allegedly unauthorized charges incurred when the plaintiffs rented cars from the company....more
A business (“the Defendants” or “X”, “Y” or “Z”) that provides expert and litigation support services cannot, simultaneously, act for a party (“the Claimant”) in one arbitration and against the Claimant in a separate...more
On November 4, 2019, in Wainblat v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, et. al., No. 19-cv-10976, the District of Massachusetts ordered that a consumer privacy class action against Comcast must be arbitrated on an individual...more
This past Friday, by a vote of 225-186, the House passed H.R. 1423, the “Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act.” A Senate companion bill (S. 610) was introduced in February 2019 and referred to the Senate Judiciary...more
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, 563 U.S. 333 (2011) caused a shockwave in California’s class action bar when it held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) preempted California’s former...more