A recent federal appeals court decision rejecting a business’s attempts at enforcing its online arbitration agreement offers lessons for businesses across the country on how to craft a valid agreement for your website. 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
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
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
In Parker-Grennan v. Camelot UK Lotteries Limited1, the Court of Appeal considered, for the first time, what needs to be done to incorporate standard terms for goods or services into a contract which is made online....more
Online terms and conditions have long been a challenge for businesses. How can you simultaneously ensure a consumer is made aware of the key terms of an online contract (so they are incorporated into the contract) whilst also...more
While unfair practices trapping consumers in unwanted subscriptions have been addressed under existing consumer law, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill introduces a new set of requirements which are specific...more
On 25 April 2023, the United Kingdom (UK) government introduced the long-awaited Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (Bill) into Parliament. Along with some significant changes to the enforcement powers of the UK...more
The draft of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (the “Bill”) was published last week, and among the many objectives, it aims to drive high standards of consumer protection. One area which has attracted much...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
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
In a case of first impression, the California Court of Appeal, Fourth District (San Diego), considered "under what circumstances a 'sign-in wrap' agreement … is valid and enforceable" between consumers and online companies...more
As an ever-increasing amount of contract negotiation and execution is done online, new legal issues have arisen from such transactions. Consider the following scenario: You are a general/prime contractor. You have a...more
As we have noted many times in prior articles, courts often refuse to enforce “browsewrap” agreements where terms are presented to users merely by including a link on a page or screen without requiring affirmative acceptance....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
Last week, the Southern District of New York followed a long line of precedent under New York law and upheld the enforceability of a website clickwrap agreement, granting a website operator’s motion to compel arbitration...more
In April 2015, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York defined a new category of online agreement, the "sign-in-wrap" agreement, which it distinguished from clickwrap agreements. The court then...more
Legal documents of all kinds – everything from wills and trusts to commercial sales agreements – often reference other documents. This “incorporation by reference” comes with certain risks. Historically, courts looked beyond...more