A Wren Says

We might as well continue with the complaints. As I logged into my Lyft app for the first time in a while, I was prompted to agree to the new terms. I chose to read through instead of mindlessly clicking to quickly book my ride. “Arbitration.” As a condition to use the service, I had to agree to only using an arbiter, not the court of law, to settle any claims. That didn’t sit right with me.

Forced arbitration agreements are becoming much more common. It saves corporations from the time and money of frivolous lawsuits. But if you have a real case, it hurts you. You lose the key protections that come with a trial, such as the discovery period and possibly being able to join with other consumers in a class action suit. You may have heard about Disney trying to block the case of a plaintiff who died in one their parks because the family had a Disney+ membership, which includes a forced arbitration agreement. But if you notice the agreement says nothing about the organization not being able to sue you.

There are multiple organizations doing their best to fight this trend and restore consumer protections. But you can still use your power by taking to social media to speak out and by boycotting (perhaps loudly) any company that has these agreements. And please, make sure you read agreements before clicking to say you did. Don’t give away your rights so easily.

You can read more about this on Consumer Reports.