Supreme Court: AT&T can force arbitration, block class-action suits

[ElNono]

Supreme Court: AT&T can force arbitration, block class-action suits

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that AT&T—and indeed, any company—could block class-action suits arising from disputes with customers and instead force those customers into binding arbitration. The ruling reverses previous lower-court decisions that classified stipulations in AT&T's service contract which barred class arbitration as "unconscionable."

Full Article (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/04/scotus-rules-att-can-force-arbitration-block-class-action-suits.ars)

[ElNono]

Lets hear the outrage from the 'States rights' crowd...

[RandomGuy]

AT&T or other companies could quietly settle a few individual claims instead of being faced with larger class-action settlements which might include punitive awards designed to discourage future bad practices.

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck...

Wow, talk about a blank check to fuck over customers on a massive basis.

Steal a few pennies from tens of millions of people every month, and then arbitrate the few cases where consumers were alert enough to call them on it.

This is the "free market" at work.

[elbamba]

This is a tough one for me. The problem that I have is that if you are a plaintiff, many attorneys would take your case because of the potential for a large reward. If you limit it to arbitration, good look finding an attorney that will take in on a contingent fee. Plus, in most arbitration cases, the plaintiff has to fork over half of the cost of the arbitrator. I have seen this cost as much as $50,000.00 just to start arbitration. That is a heck of a lot more than the 100-200 it costs to file and serve a complaint in federal/state court.

Most of these cell phone cases will probably run 4-8,000 is my guess. And the only alternative is the unrealistic choice of not using a cell phone so you don't have to sign those rediculous, one-sided service agreements.

[elbamba]

Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck...

Wow, talk about a blank check to fuck over customers on a massive basis.

Steal a few pennies from tens of millions of people every month, and then arbitrate the few cases where consumers were alert enough to call them on it.

This is the "free market" at work.

In all fairness, It was a state tax. AT&T didn't steal anything as far as I know. But the implication of the ruling will hurt real cases when people get screwed.

[boutons_deux]

UCA will nickel, dime, dollar$$$ consumers to poverty, and consumers won't be able to do a fucking thing in their defense.

And then there's swipe fees:

"banks take in a combined $48 billion a year from these “interchange” fees on debit and credit cards, according to analysts at The Nilson Report. That money comes out of the pockets of consumers as well as merchants, as stores pass on whatever costs they can to their customers."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/28/swipe-fees-interchange-banks-merchants_n_853574.html?view=print


and checking overdraft charges, where banks in 2009 made $25B+ on overdrafts while having profits of under $15B.

[Winehole23]

And the only alternative is the unrealistic choice of not using a cell phone so you don't have to sign those rediculous, one-sided service agreements.You don't have to sign those ridiculous one-sided service agreements. I'm a month-to-month guy for my cellular plan. $55.00 month including insurance, no contract, no extra/hidden charges.

[Winehole23]

That said, sucks for consumers, great for sleazy telecoms.

[ElNono]

That said, sucks for consumers, great for sleazy telecoms.

I wish the resolution would only be circumscribed to sleazy telecoms... this applies to any company...

[Winehole23]

Good point. Read the fine print, y'all.

[greyforest]

I for one welcome our new corporate overlords

[FromWayDowntown]

If a few people are harmed along the way to making massive profits, it's not really a big deal -- business is far more important than people and substantially more important than the well-being of people.

At least this leaves a potential remedy for those who are trampled under in the rush to increase profits; if some of the proposed tort reform measures in Texas come to pass, employees and others will wish they could take their claims to arbitration since the Courts will be practically closed to injured individuals.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Surprise, surprise, another 5-4 partisan SCOTUS decision.

Our political system is shit. Cut 'subsidies' to political parties and ban parties from running at the state, local and national level simultaneously.

Thanks, baby boomers. Your government ROCKS!!!

[boutons_deux]

Bank of America's New Credit Card Penalty Interest Rate Is Nearly 30%

Bank of America credit card holders, beware. If you're late on a monthly payment, that little "oops" might become a big "ouch": Your future balances could be subject to a penalty rate of nearly 30%

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/04/27/bank-of-americas-new-credit-card-penalty-interest-rate-is-nearl/

[PublicOption]

Lets hear the outrage from the 'States rights' crowd...


I know the GOP backs this bullshit and then all those idiots who vote for them get it in the ass............p.s. there are democrats that will vote this way too, but its mostly repugs.

[PublicOption]

these fuckers can now overcharge the hell out of you and say fuck you lets arbitrate. this makes me scare to do business with any company.

[FuzzyLumpkins]

They need to take party affiliations off of ballots.

[fyatuk]

Meh.

1) It was a sales tax, which means the phone was "free after rebate" and sales tax had to be charged by law, so the complaint itself was stupid. AT&T didn't charge them anything, California did.

2) The contract the complaintant signed agreed to arbitration. I'm not going to fault a court for upholding a signed contract.

3) Class action lawsuits suck. Yes, it's about the only way to get huge damages from corporations, but 50% (in some cases up to 70-80%) or more stays with the lawyer, which I just can't agree with.

I just don't see how this really affects anything. Unless you think arbitration clauses in all contracts (and they are in everything, cell phones, credit cards, etc) should all be thrown out. If you don't agree with the terms, don't sign the contract. If enough people refuse, they'll change the contract.

[boutons_deux]

Banks Already Taking Advantage Of Supreme Court Decision Expanding Forced Arbitration

http://thinkprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/forced-arbitration-237x300.jpg

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/08/02/286187/banks-already-taking-advantage-of-supreme-court-decision-expanding-forced-arbitration/

===========

We can expect all, sooner or later, corp-to-consumer contracts will slam the courthouse door shut on consumers. Even those contracts you don't sign, like opening a box means you enter into a contract.

[vy65]

We can expect all, sooner or later, corp-to-consumer contracts will slam the courthouse door shut on consumers. Even those contracts you don't sign, like opening a box means you enter into a contract.

If you believe this, then you're truly fucking retarded.

[boutons_deux]

I believe this: you're fucking retarded.

UCA will fuck Human-Americans in every possible orifice, and rip us some new ones. That's the fundamental rule of unregulated sacred, worshipped capitalism.

[Winehole23]

A federal judge called America's move to forced arbitration and bans on class-action suits ... "among the most profound shifts in our legal history."


The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is currently floating a rule that would limit forced arbitration, ensuring that people had access to the courts when they were wronged by finance companies. While most of the debate about forced arbitration focuses on unfairness, the outcome of that unfairness is wealth transfer: because forced arbitration takes away your legal rights and bargaining power, it constitutes a parallel system of justice (http://boingboing.net/2015/10/02/arbitration-how-americas-co.html) whole laws are literally written by corporations to give them the upper hand when they wrong their workers and customers.


Companies don't rip off the humans they deal with out of sadism: they do it for profit. Unsurprisingly, the effect of a system that enables firms to profit by taking away rights from workers and customers is to make rich people richer, at the expense of poorer people, who become poorer still.


What kinds of claims are run through the forced arbitration system? Claims for wage theft, where companies literally just refuse to pay workers for the hours they have worked (as much as $50B/year is stolen this way in America, affecting everyone from Walmart workers to Oakland Raiders cheerleaders); financial fraud, including deceptive loan practices, hidden fees, and payday loans; and antitrust, where companies conspire to fix prices and rig markets -- health care and pharma companies are particularly aggressive in insisting on antitrust arbitration provisions in their dealings.


A brief from the The American Constitution Society for Law and Policy lays out the case for forced arbitration as a wealth-transfer mechanism in clear language.http://boingboing.net/2016/02/20/forced-arbitration-clauses-are.html

[boutons_deux]

http://boingboing.net/2016/02/20/forced-arbitration-clauses-are.html

... people still adore, venerate, fellate BigCorp as the highest form of human achievement, which must serve as model for all organizations and human behavior.

Banning of class actions suits, and the bogus "commonality test", are shitty vestiges of shitty, politicized Scalia.

[Winehole23]

contractual limitation made a condition of employment after the fact:


Employees of the music equipment retailer Guitar Center have been told they must sign mandatory arbitration agreements or they will lose their jobs.



The agreement, a copy of which was obtained by The Huffington Post, forces employees to relinquish their rights to sue the company in class action lawsuits over wage violations, workplace discrimination and unjust firings, among other disputes.
Sean Lynch, a sales employee at the company's Las Vegas store, said he and his colleagues were told they must sign the agreement by end of day Friday or they forfeit their jobs.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/guitar-center-arbitration-agreement_us_5698fb9be4b0b4eb759e0e5b

[boutons_deux]

America is fucked and unfuckable.

BigCorp's Repug whores in Congress will block all attempts to kill forced arbitration and re-instatement of class action rights.

The powers and "rights" that Corporate-Americans have piled up high behind legislative defenses and right-wing-SCOTUS' "settled law" are insurmountable by Human-Americans.

[Winehole23]

it's coming to a head:


The Supreme Court will soon decide whether employers can lawfully require workers to sign mandatory arbitration agreements that include class and collective action waivers. A ruling in NLRB v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc., Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, and Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris (http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/national-labor-relations-board-v-murphy-oil-usa-inc/) will have significant impacts on working people. If the Court sides with employers and the Trump administration, it is likely that the majority of workers in this country will be required, as a condition of employment, to sign away their right to pursue workplace disputes on a collective or class basis. In fact, available data suggest that it may take only six years for more than 80 percent of workplaces to adopt mandatory arbitration with class and collective action waivers.https://www.epi.org/blog/the-supreme-court-is-poised-to-make-forced-arbitration-nearly-inescapable/