Lucas,
Would you be willing to pay the price of your constitutional rights to renew your cell phone contract? What about to open a bank account?
Seems a little steep to me.
But giant corporations like AT&T, Sony and Wells Fargo demand just that in the contracts they require their customers to sign. If they rip you off, forced arbitration clauses and bans on class actions in those contracts prevent you from holding them accountable in court.
Find out if companies you do business with every day are taking away your rights.
To help consumers figure out which companies are putting themselves above the law with forced arbitration clauses, we've put together the Forced Arbitration Rogues Gallery.
Forced arbitration clauses and class action bans are buried in the fine print of consumer contracts for numerous products and services, from prepaid Starbucks cards to nursing home contracts.
To resolve disputes against these businesses, consumers and employees are forced into secret tribunals where the corporations write the rules.
But backroom deal-making is not justice, and our rights aren't for sale to corporations.
Check the Forced Arbitration Rogues Gallery for companies you interact with every day.
If a company you do business with isn't listed here, review its terms of service. If the company requires forced arbitration, send an email to action@citizen.org to let us know and we'll add them to this gallery.
And if you have a forced arbitration experience to share, you can also send your story to action@citizen.org .
Arm yourself with knowledge, and then help us call out these rogues that are rigging the justice system.
Thanks for all that you do.
Onward,
Rick Claypool
Public Citizen's Online Action Team
action@citizen.org