Class action waivers are undergoing a renaissance following the Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Wal-Mart v. Dukes and AT&T v. Concepcion. With the green light from the Supreme Court, more companies are adopting class action waivers in a wider range of circumstances.

What’s unusual about General Mills’ move is that we haven’t seen such a broad-based waiver from a consumer packaged goods company. Most consumer packaged goods companies don’t have a direct relationship with their customers. The retailers typically have the front-line contact with the customers. That makes it harder for the consumer packaged goods companies to impose new contract terms on customers. Here, General Mills is using a direct point-of-contact with its customers–its web interactions–to create new contract terms that would be difficult or impossible to impose through the normal distribution chain. Also, some folks feel that the consumers’ benefits being offered by General Mills–a few pennies saved here or there–aren’t commensurate with the potential loss of a large financial payoff if there’s manufacturer malfeasance.

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Tags: consumer packaged goods companies, General Mills, the Supreme Court