The Supreme Court seemed prepared on Monday to rule that workers at a California business could not band together in an arbitration proceeding to seek compensation for what they said was their employer’s failure to protect their data.
The case was the court’s latest effort to determine whether companies can use arbitration provisions to bar class actions in court and in arbitration proceedings. In cases concerning fine-print contracts with consumers and employment agreements, the court has ruled that arbitration provisions can require disputes to be resolved one by one.
Monday’s case, Lamps Plus v. Varela, No. 17-988, presented a slightly different issue. The arbitration provision in the employment agreement in question did not specifically bar class actions and said that “arbitration shall be in lieu of any and all lawsuits or other civil legal proceedings relating to my employment.” That language, a divided three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled, meant that workers could pursue their claims as a class in the arbitration proceeding.
