What we really need is some legislation protecting consumers’ right to sue. Because arbitration clauses have become ubiquitous. And if you were talking about a true, negotiated contract with an arbitration clause, that would be fine. But these contracts aren’t negotiated. They’re very one sided contracts. The company writes all the terms in a manner most favorable to them, and then your option is to agree to those terms, or not use the service or product. The courts view terms of service as if they are simply normal contract terms of a contract negotiated by two parties in the way two parties would have negotiated the terms of a contract 100 years ago. The only way to get the courts to change this is to change the law. You don’t want to ban all arbitration clauses. They can be a really good way to keep from clogging the court system up with a lot of bullshit. In traditional contracts, they should absolutely still be allowed. In those, the parties have the opportunity to truly negotiate terms. And you wouldn’t even have to ban them for apps and services. Just give consumers the option. You can go to arbitration if you want, but allow them to sue if they don’t want to go to arbitration.
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