cheaper and faster than courts (esp. if you sign away right to class action lawsuits)
lower instances of payout
can change terms after sale
Negatives for corporations:
people may move to a competitor with better terms
The reason they didn’t do it before is because people had more options. But once enough companies do it, everyone else feels like they can get away with it. The only real way for customers to fight back is to switch, but companies are finding that people generally just accept the forced arbitration agreement because it’s easier.
So I’m guessing we’re hitting some critical mass where more and more companies find they can get away with it.
I think the question is why do we seem to be seeing it everywhere all of a sudden. It is an old shitty practice but Roku kicked it off recently and seems like we see a bunch of others for some reason.
I don’t think it’s particularly new in general (see this article about forced arbitration for employment dated 2019), we’re just seeing it expand to tech services because they think they can get away with it.
Benefits for corporations:
Negatives for corporations:
The reason they didn’t do it before is because people had more options. But once enough companies do it, everyone else feels like they can get away with it. The only real way for customers to fight back is to switch, but companies are finding that people generally just accept the forced arbitration agreement because it’s easier.
So I’m guessing we’re hitting some critical mass where more and more companies find they can get away with it.
I think the question is why do we seem to be seeing it everywhere all of a sudden. It is an old shitty practice but Roku kicked it off recently and seems like we see a bunch of others for some reason.