On behalf of the American Bankers Association (ABA) and the Consumer Bankers Association (CBA), Ballard Spahr has submitted an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court in Coinbase, Inc., et al. v. Kramer, et al., No....more
7/8/2025
/ American Bankers Association ,
Amicus Briefs ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Banking Sector ,
California ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Consumer Protection Laws ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
SCOTUS ,
The McGill Rule
Effective May 1, 2025, the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) amended its Consumer Arbitration Rules, including Rule 12 dealing with the registration of consumer arbitration clauses. The AAA stated that its goal was to...more
6/10/2025
/ American Arbitration Association ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Contract Disputes ,
Contract Terms ,
Credit Unions ,
Dispute Resolution ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Registration Fees ,
Registration Requirement ,
Regulatory Requirements
Our special guest is David Horton, Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, who has written a creative and thought-provoking article analyzing how courts should interpret certain key provisions that are...more
Earlier this month, the CFPB issued a report titled Strengthening State-Level Consumer Protection. The report argues, among other things, that states should “[r]evitalize private enforcement” by promulgating additional UDAAP...more
Earlier this year, the New Jersey Supreme Court held in Pace v. Hamilton Cove that class action waivers in consumer contracts that do not contain an arbitration clause (i.e., a stand-alone class action waiver) are not per se...more
12/31/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Services Industry ,
NJ Supreme Court ,
Public Policy ,
Unconscionable Contracts ,
Unenforceable Contract Terms
We previously wrote about a California federal district court decision in Heckman v. Live Nation Entertainment that denied Ticketmaster’s motion to compel arbitration of Sherman Act antitrust claims based in large part on the...more
As reported in Public Citizen’s Consumer Law & Policy Blog, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court recently agreed to review Chilutti v. Uber Technologies, Inc., in which a divided panel of the Pennsylvania Superior Court (and later...more
9/6/2024
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Burden of Proof ,
Contract Terms ,
Enforceability ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Jury Trial ,
Motion to Compel ,
Online Contracts ,
PA Supreme Court ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Uber
On July 8, we published a blog about a landmark 7th Circuit opinion involving mass arbitration: Pauline Wallrich v. Samsung Electronics America, Incorporated. In that opinion, the Court dismissed a lawsuit against Samsung...more
We previously wrote about an Illinois federal district court order requiring Samsung to pay about $4 million in arbitration fees in connection with 35,000 individual arbitration demands filed as part of a “mass arbitration”...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has held unanimously in Smith v. Spizzirri that when a district court finds that a lawsuit involves an arbitrable dispute and a party has requested a stay of the court proceedings pending arbitration,...more
Our special guest is Professor Richard Frankel of Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law and the author of a recent article on mass arbitration. In this episode, we first discuss what mass arbitration is, how it...more
After several years of refusing to adopt special rules applicable in mass arbitration proceedings, JAMS announced that it has issued Mass Arbitration Procedures and Guidelines and a Mass Arbitration Procedures Fee Schedule...more
In connection with the petition to ban pre-dispute consumer arbitration agreements pending before the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and a recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “forced arbitration,”...more
4/16/2024
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Congressional Investigations & Hearings ,
Congressional Review Act ,
Consumer Financial Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Dodd-Frank ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process
We previously wrote about a Ninth Circuit appeal taken by Verizon Wireless, Inc. after a California district court judge held that its arbitration agreement, which required mass arbitration disputes to be resolved by multiple...more
Recently, 93 members of Congress (all Democrats) signed a letter in support of the pending Petition for Rulemaking filed by consumer advocacy groups in September that would prohibit pre-dispute consumer arbitration clauses...more
12/19/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Attorney's Fees ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Financial Contracts ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Regulatory Reform ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Petition for Rulemaking ,
Pre-Dispute Arbitration
Recently, Professor Sovern replied to our blog post that commented on the letter that he and 160 other law academicians submitted to the CFPB in support of the pending Petition for Rulemaking that would prohibit pre-dispute...more
We previously reported and released a podcast episode on comments that we and Professor David Sherwyn of Cornell University submitted in opposition to the Petition for Rulemaking filed by a number of consumer advocacy groups...more
12/7/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Contract Disputes ,
CRA ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Final Rules ,
Financial Contracts ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Proposed Rules ,
Rulemaking Process
We previously blogged about an Illinois federal district court order requiring Samsung to pay about $4 million in arbitration fees in connection with 35,000 individual arbitration demands filed as part of a “mass...more
Our special guest is David Sherwyn, Professor of Law at Cornell University's School of Hotel Administration. In Sept. 2023, a group of consumer advocate organizations filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the CFPB that would...more
Earlier this month, in Fama v. Opportunity Financial LLC, a Magistrate Judge of the federal district court for the Western District of Washington held that the arbitration provision in OppFi’s installment loan agreement is...more
10/27/2023
/ Arbitration Agreements ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Creditors ,
Debtors ,
Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Services Industry ,
FinTech ,
Installment Agreements ,
Loan Agreements ,
Opt-Outs ,
Putative Class Actions ,
RICO ,
True Lender
Last week, a group of consumer advocate organizations filed a Petition for Rulemaking with the CFPB that would prohibit the use of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer contracts in favor of arbitration clauses that...more
9/19/2023
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) ,
Petition for Rulemaking ,
Pre-Dispute Arbitration ,
Proposed Regulation
Alleging violations of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), approximately 50,000 Samsung customers filed individual arbitration demands with the American Arbitration Association (AAA) pursuant to an...more
Professor Jeff Sovern recently blogged about the FTC’s June 2023 revisions to its Endorsement Guide. The Guide helps advertisers and endorsers make sure that their advertising using endorsements or testimonials is truthful...more
Last week, Professor Jeff Sovern of St. John’s University School of Law published a blog post discussing a new empirical study by Roseanna Sommers, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, dealing...more
Our response to Professor Sovern’s article about arbitration opt-outs and so-called “dark patterns” prompted a reply in which he poses two “challenges”: (1) “prove that opt outs benefit consumers by telling us how many...more