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Banning class action suits have essentially disabled consumer challenges to practices like predatory lending. Additionally, a Wall Street-led coalition of credit card companies and retailers, have also engineered blocks on class action suits. In this article, various companies’ efforts to protect arbitration are discussed.

Questions:
1. Why has the “birth of a thousand clauses” taken millions of Americans by surprise?
2. Which industry does the article point to as having the greatest understanding of arbitration clauses and what event or events triggered their education about arbitration?
3. Discuss why there is an opt-out policy rather than an opt-in policy for arbitration.
4. Who are some of the retailers that have class-action bans are included in the employment policies? Discuss the dilemma of giving up rights versus giving up a job.
5. Would you support arbitration for a business you owned? Why or why not?

Source:
Silver-Greenberg, J. and R. Gebeloff. (2015). Arbitration Everywhere, Stacking the Deck of Justice. The New York Times, Oct. 31 (Retrievable online at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/01/business/dealbook/arbitration-everywhere-stacking-the-deck-of-justice.html)
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