How companies weaponize the terms of service against you | Decoder

Brendan Ballou is founder of the Public Integrity Project and author of the new book, When Companies Run the Courts, about the rise of forced arbitration.

Forced arbitration is similarly everywhere in modern life, and there have been some very high-profile cases these past few years highlighting how deeply unfair these clauses are to consumers. Brendan’s book delves into how and why we got here — spoiler: we can blame Antonin Scalia for some of it — but also, most importantly, how we may be able to fight back in the future.

0:00 – Intro / Teaser
1:09 – Welcome to Decoder
2:45 – Suing Paramount over the Warner Bros. merger
10:15 – The federal DOJ vs. federal courts distinction
10:33 – Transition to the book: "When Companies Run the Courts"
12:08 – What is forced arbitration?
13:35 – The Disney+ death case
16:26 – How the Supreme Court enabled forced arbitration
17:45 – Antonin Scalia's role in arbitration law
18:46 – How arbitration kills class actions
26:23 – How do we fix it?
28:21 – California's PAGA law as a workaround
34:10 – Mass arbitration: breaking the system
36:22 – Suing Elon Musk / Twitter employees
38:19 – Companies fighting back against mass arbitration
39:59 – AI arbitration?
43:05 – Dynamic pricing, AI, and arbitrary outcomes
46:08 – The Verge's sense of hope & audience nihilism
49:13 – Closing: How to escape forced arbitration

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