In Norcia, Plaintiff filed a putative class action against Samsung, alleging that it made misrepresentations as to the performance of the Galaxy S4 phone. Plaintiff purchased his Samsung phone from a Verizon Wireless store in San Francisco, California. As part of the purchase process, he signed a Customer Agreement with Verizon, containing an arbitration provision that did not reference Samsung or any other party. The phone also came in a sealed box containing a Product…
On January 31, 2017, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals authorized a court-appointed Receiver to avoid arbitration clauses…
California continued its ongoing debate on arbitrations and class actions in July when its Supreme Court held that in some…
In Sgouros v. TransUnion Corp., No. 15-1371 (7th Cir. Mar. 25, 2016), the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals declined to enforce a website’s arbitration clause because it failed to provide the site’s users with reasonable notice that an online purchase manifested assent to its terms. Plaintiff, Gary Sgouros, tried to purchase an online credit score from Defendant, TransUnion, in an effort to negotiate a favorable loan and purchase a car. But the score that Plaintiff bought was “useless” because it was…
In Nelson v. Watch House Int’l, L.L.C., No. 15-10531 (5th Cir. Mar. 2, 2016), the Fifth Circuit found an…
In Dell Webb Communities, Inc. v. Carlson, No. 45-1385 (4th Cir. Dec. 9, 2015), the Fourth Circuit held…
One of the central questions considered by the court in Barrier Limited v Redhall Marine Limited [2016] EWHC 381 (QB) was whether an arbitration clause from a contract (the “Main Contract”) between A and B had been incorporated into a subcontract between B and C. Background facts: The applicant was the subcontractor, engaged to paint the interior and exterior of Astute class submarines. It applied to the court for pre-action disclosure against the respondent, who…
Are offers to arbitrate in BITs (Bilateral Investment Treaties) between EU member states compatible with the laws of…
In January 2016, the German Federal Supreme Court had to deal with the question whether an arbitral tribunal…
A recent decision by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (4A_628/2015) has addressed the jurisdictional hurdles that can result from multi-tiered dispute resolution clauses, under which parties must first submit disputes to conciliation before being able to commence arbitration. Background The parties had agreed that, before referring disputes to arbitration in Switzerland in accordance with the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules, they would make an attempt to resolve the matter through conciliation pursuant to the then existing ICC…