The Arbitration Trap

The Arbitration Trap

 

You're using a product – a phone, a credit card – and something goes wrong. The fees weren't what you thought they'd be. The phone doesn't work as advertised. You try to get relief by calling the company, waiting on hold with customer service. You write letters, to corporate headquarters and the Fair Trade Commission. You're mad, and you feel like you've been ripped off, and you decide to bite the bullet and sue. Except you can't.
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You can't sue, because tucked in the fine print of the contract you signed when you bought the phone, or signed up for the credit card, was a mandatory arbitration clause. That piece of the agreement says that if a dispute arises, the only way you can pursue justice is by meeting with an arbitrator. An arbitrator picked by the company, in a place the company chooses. You can't have a day in court. No jury of your peers.
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You can't generally just opt out of this forced arbitration. The provisions are baked in to the products we use every day. Our cell phones, cable and Internet. Credit cards, payday loans, car loans, mortgages. Car rental contracts. You can hardly talk or move or buy anything without signing away your rights.
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It's bad enough that thousands of people every day are signing away a core constitutional right without realizing it. But the problem with mandatory arbitration isn't just that you can't get a trial. It's that the arbitration people are stuck with is so unfair.
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Arbitration is not just a friendly, low-hassle, let's-talk-it-over alternative to a mean, scary court proceeding. Time after time, arbitration has been found to favor corporations over complainants. One report from 2007 found that consumers in California arbitration cases won just 4 percent of their cases. The companies typically choose the arbitrator and the location. Consumer advocates argue that arbitrators reach decisions that please the corporation, rather than decisions based on facts, in hopes of getting repeat business.
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