<story><title>U.S. Consumer Bureau Loses Fight to Allow More Class-Action Suits</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/business/senate-vote-wall-street-regulation.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>morley</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m going to ask what might be a dumb question, because I don&amp;#x27;t know any better. But is there any statistical evidence that arbitration results in worse outcomes for the consumer, or is all the hate theoretical for now? People on HN and otherwise speak about arbitration like it&amp;#x27;s an auto-loss for the consumer, but it&amp;#x27;s not like our court systems are guaranteed to be much fairer.&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;p&gt;It looks like the bottom of the article explains that the US Consumer Bureau studied arbitration and found it anti-consumer:&lt;p&gt;As arbitration clauses appeared in tens of millions of contracts, the consumer agency was specifically mandated to study arbitration under the Dodd-Frank financial law in 2010. That effort culminated in a 728-page report, released in March 2015, that challenged longstanding assumptions about arbitration.&lt;p&gt;The agency found that once blocked from suing, few people went to arbitration at all. And the results for those who did were dismal. During the two-year period studied, only 78 arbitration claims resulted in judgments in favor of consumers, who got $400,000 in total relief.</text></item><item><author>dwyerm</author><text>I was offered over $1000 off to &amp;#x27;just sign the damned contract&amp;#x27;, but still ended up walking.  I was fortunate to find a different dealer that didn&amp;#x27;t have an arbitration clause, though.  I fear I wouldn&amp;#x27;t find that next time around, and was really hanging my hopes upon legislation like this.</text></item><item><author>wingspar</author><text>When I last purchased a car I used accepting the arbitration clause to extract $150 in accessories from the dealer.  The sales agent was a bit confused, it’s usually the paperwork guy that deals with the arbitration and at point most people just want it over with..</text></item><item><author>defined</author><text>&amp;gt; Today, it is hard to open up a checking account, rent a car, get cable service or check a loved one into a nursing home without agreeing to mandatory arbitration.&lt;p&gt;This is the part that gives me ulcers, and it&amp;#x27;s no exaggeration. So many companies insist on us giving up our 7th Amendment rights that we either give in, or don&amp;#x27;t fly, buy a car, or get a job. We can&amp;#x27;t even go to the competition because they also have mandatory binding arbitration clauses in their contracts.&lt;p&gt;As bad as the Equifax breach is, IMO this is a greater danger to our freedoms.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pmyteh</author><text>Per the article: &amp;quot;During the two-year period studied, only 78 arbitration claims resulted in judgments in favor of consumers, who got $400,000 in total relief.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s not clear what the denominator on that sum is, though it is also stated that the rate of customers taking up arbitration was very low</text></comment>
<story><title>U.S. Consumer Bureau Loses Fight to Allow More Class-Action Suits</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/24/business/senate-vote-wall-street-regulation.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>morley</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m going to ask what might be a dumb question, because I don&amp;#x27;t know any better. But is there any statistical evidence that arbitration results in worse outcomes for the consumer, or is all the hate theoretical for now? People on HN and otherwise speak about arbitration like it&amp;#x27;s an auto-loss for the consumer, but it&amp;#x27;s not like our court systems are guaranteed to be much fairer.&lt;p&gt;EDIT:&lt;p&gt;It looks like the bottom of the article explains that the US Consumer Bureau studied arbitration and found it anti-consumer:&lt;p&gt;As arbitration clauses appeared in tens of millions of contracts, the consumer agency was specifically mandated to study arbitration under the Dodd-Frank financial law in 2010. That effort culminated in a 728-page report, released in March 2015, that challenged longstanding assumptions about arbitration.&lt;p&gt;The agency found that once blocked from suing, few people went to arbitration at all. And the results for those who did were dismal. During the two-year period studied, only 78 arbitration claims resulted in judgments in favor of consumers, who got $400,000 in total relief.</text></item><item><author>dwyerm</author><text>I was offered over $1000 off to &amp;#x27;just sign the damned contract&amp;#x27;, but still ended up walking.  I was fortunate to find a different dealer that didn&amp;#x27;t have an arbitration clause, though.  I fear I wouldn&amp;#x27;t find that next time around, and was really hanging my hopes upon legislation like this.</text></item><item><author>wingspar</author><text>When I last purchased a car I used accepting the arbitration clause to extract $150 in accessories from the dealer.  The sales agent was a bit confused, it’s usually the paperwork guy that deals with the arbitration and at point most people just want it over with..</text></item><item><author>defined</author><text>&amp;gt; Today, it is hard to open up a checking account, rent a car, get cable service or check a loved one into a nursing home without agreeing to mandatory arbitration.&lt;p&gt;This is the part that gives me ulcers, and it&amp;#x27;s no exaggeration. So many companies insist on us giving up our 7th Amendment rights that we either give in, or don&amp;#x27;t fly, buy a car, or get a job. We can&amp;#x27;t even go to the competition because they also have mandatory binding arbitration clauses in their contracts.&lt;p&gt;As bad as the Equifax breach is, IMO this is a greater danger to our freedoms.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Larrikin</author><text>The normal system is that these civil disputes are done in a court of law. Justify the change.</text></comment>