this post was submitted on 27 Sep 2024
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IANAL, what does this mean?
It means you love anal.
Sorry, it's Friday and i am silly.
A binding Arbitration would involve the submission of a dispute to a neutral party who hears the case and makes a decision.
Instead of solving the dispute in court before a judge and/or jury.
Filling fees for an arbitrator may be higher than filing a case in court.
Pre-printed consumer contacts with banks, credit card companies, automobile and home dealers usually use this.
Take it with a grain of salt , because also IANAL
Thank you fellow anal lover
Which is why Valve is making the change. They were potentially paying a lot for these filings.
https://www.reuters.com/legal/legalindustry/column-mass-arbitration-target-valve-accuses-law-firm-litigation-funder-2023-12-08/
arbitration pretty much provides zero benefit to the consumer and all benefit to the organization. a big piece is that if you sign off on an arbitration clause, then there's no such thing as class action lawsuit anymore.
some companies make you sign a handwritten letter through snail mail just to opt out, because they don't want anyone filing a lawsuit, and definitely dont' want a lot of them filing together.
this is another case of corporations saying "this option is best!!" while leaving out the "for us" part
this is why it's a big deal that steam said fuck that noise
Forced Arbitration is when a company puts something in their terms of service that forced the user to go through a process of arbitration as opposed to going to court. It is always rigged towards the company who forces it, because they are the people paying the arbitrators.
If you have a dispute with Valve you have to hire a lawyer to take them to court. No "third party" mediation
Most disputes most likely fall far below the limit for small claims, where a lawyer is not required, or even allowed in many cases.
Isn't it often in both parties to settle things out of court? For the one that'd sue it's usually more money at less cost and the company gets around possibly having a bad precedent set and the bad publicity to potentially losing in court.
This is probably aimed at people creating issues in the hopes of getting a settlement for something that has a slim (but Nonzero) chance to hold up in court.
It's a company - I think this aims at people only bringing serious claims and reducing the paperwork for them - but since it's Valve people will glorify everything they do
That's not what arbitration is. This doesn't stop valve from reaching a settlement, it stops them from using fake privately funded bench trials
Binding arbitration means the results are legally binding, non-binding arbitration means a judge needs to approve the arbitration results before it's final. Sometimes it's with an off duty judge, sometimes anyone can be the arbiter
Regardless, on one side you have a repeat customer, on the other you have someone who will probably never be back - there's a built in conflict of interest
I'm not a lawyer: Many companies are updating their terms requiring that disputes are settled through arbitration, usually where a 3rd party selected by the company rules on the disagreement.
It's meant to protect them from excessive lawsuit payments that can happen when you go to court.
Valve went the other way, and is saying that all legal disputes should go to court instead.