Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act of 2022
Floor Speech
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Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, in today's economy, signing up for digital services often requires us to agree to lengthy terms and conditions that many users likely ignore and then unknowingly sign away certain rights such as filing a lawsuit or joining a class action. The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act addresses this rampant abuse of our legal system by banning mandatory pre-dispute arbitration clauses in employment, consumer, and civil rights cases.
These forced arbitration clauses are increasingly found in consumer contracts, requiring users to waive their right to sue in a court of law and instead resolve any disputes through arbitration. Because arbitration is secretive, lacks important due process protections, and produces decisions that cannot be appealed, it too often shields bad actors from accountability and prevents consumers from enforcing their rights in our justice system.
Many consumer contracts that include forced arbitration clauses empower companies to collect unseemly amounts of data from their users and abuse that data for profit. The problem is acute in highly concentrated industries where corporations wield significant market power because consumers often have little or no alternative to these anti-consumers contracts. This model of what's been labeled ``surveillance capitalism'' is bolstered by forced arbitration clauses that ensure the most egregious abuses of consumer data cannot be challenged in court. My legislation to protect consumer privacy, the Online Privacy Act, bars the use of forced arbitration clauses in user agreements about privacy for this reason.
No one should be required to sign away their right to access our justice system when they sign up for a credit card, cell phone plan, or social media account. The FAIR Act is critical legislation to protect the rights of consumers, particularly regarding online privacy. I'm proud to be a cosponsor of this important legislation, and l urge my colleagues to vote for it.
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