One-Third of Online Retailers in the U.S. Now Require Consumer Arbitration or Restrict Class-Action Lawsuits
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Online retailers in the United States are increasingly requiring consumers to arbitrate disputes through their terms-of-service rules. According to an article recently published in a New York Times blog, the Upshot, approximately one-third of the top 200 retail websites operating in the U.S. now uses clickwrap or browsewrap agreements to ban class action lawsuits or to require arbitration of consumer disputes. A similar percentage of the top 500 most visited websites also includes a class action ban or mandatory arbitration for consumers. According to the Upshot,
The companies occupy all corners of the web: e-commerce giants like Amazon and eBay; popular dating sites, including Match.com and OKCupid; media companies like The Wall Street Journal and BuzzFeed (though not The New York Times Company); the online storage startup Dropbox; even brick-and-mortar retailers like Target and Domino’s Pizza, whose restrictions would apply if you purchased items on their websites, but not in their physical stores.
A few big, familiar web companies like Facebook and Google stand out by not limiting whether their users can sue.
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