eBay Mandatory Binding Arbitration Opt Out Date

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You have until November 9th to opt-out of eBay's mandatory binding arbitration. Here's the ALL CAPS explanation:

YOU AND EBAY AGREE THAT EACH OF US MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS AND NOT AS PART OF ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTION OR PROCEEDING. UNLESS BOTH YOU AND EBAY AGREE OTHERWISE, THE ARBITRATOR MAY NOT CONSOLIDATE OR JOIN MORE THAN ONE PERSON'S OR PARTY'S CLAIMS, AND MAY NOT OTHERWISE PRESIDE OVER ANY FORM OF A CONSOLIDATED, REPRESENTATIVE, OR CLASS PROCEEDING. ALSO, THE ARBITRATOR MAY AWARD RELIEF (INCLUDING MONETARY, INJUNCTIVE, AND DECLARATORY RELIEF) ONLY IN FAVOR OF THE INDIVIDUAL PARTY SEEKING RELIEF AND ONLY TO THE EXTENT NECESSARY TO PROVIDE RELIEF NECESSITATED BY THAT PARTY'S INDIVIDUAL CLAIM(S). ANY RELIEF AWARDED CANNOT AFFECT OTHER EBAY USERS.
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A lot of companies are doing this now a days. Valve updated their EULA/SSA (or whatever they call it) a month or 2 ago to include the same thing.
 
You mean that I won't be able to join a class action lawsuit that results in a $5 coupon for me and millions for the lawyers?

Bummer.....
 
Now I got that it meant no class-actions against eBay, but what I'm not entirely positive on is: If we opt-out, does that mean we can form a class-action suit? :confused:
 
I really don't understand why eBay continues to pretend that getting people to check a box or click a button relieves them of their rights under the law.

You cannot be required to waive your rights under a contract. My right to be part of a class action lawsuit is independent of whatever arrangement eBay thinks they have with me.

They really need to get their heads out of their asses.
 
nutzo said:
You mean that I won't be able to join a class action lawsuit that results in a $5 coupon for me and millions for the lawyers?

Bummer.....
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Although this is what happens, at least the company gets punished and gives motive for the company to change its ways and discourage others from copying that company.
 
deadrody said:
I really don't understand why eBay continues to pretend that getting people to check a box or click a button relieves them of their rights under the law.

You cannot be required to waive your rights under a contract. My right to be part of a class action lawsuit is independent of whatever arrangement eBay thinks they have with me.

They really need to get their heads out of their asses.
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Not according to SCOTUS.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...n-force-arbitration-block-class-action-suits/

AT&T did this. They made it legal. Your rights as of right now are dictated by these terms of service agreements. Congrats, say hello to your corporate overlords.
 
deadrody said:
I really don't understand why eBay continues to pretend that getting people to check a box or click a button relieves them of their rights under the law.

You cannot be required to waive your rights under a contract. My right to be part of a class action lawsuit is independent of whatever arrangement eBay thinks they have with me.

They really need to get their heads out of their asses.
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Nope, some judge somewhere ruled this valid in the context of a EULA. And everyone all been tripping over themselves putting in their EULA's.
 
nutzo said:
You mean that I won't be able to join a class action lawsuit that results in a $5 coupon for me and millions for the lawyers?

Bummer.....
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or the fact that you will no longer be able to sue/take ebay to court, as tehy can have their highly paid million dollar lawyers drag it out in court when you don't have nearly enough money to do such a thing because you can no longer join with many other people and pool your money together in a class action suit, which coudl then result in ebay losing out on millions in lawer fee's + millions to the plantiffs.

I have never understood how people don't see the point of class action lawsuits.

When THOUSANDS, if not 10's of thousands of people are involved in a class action settlement and each of them is awarded 5-10 bucks that adds up to usually MORE then the lawyer fee's, it's just that there's so many people individually you would never get that much, unless you bankrupt the company you are suing.

The point of many class actions is to hurt the company and be able to afford to actually take them to court and win, if you do they can lose hundreds of thousands/millions of dollars (it'd be less if one person sued usually) but because there's so many the individual person doens't get as much naturally.
 
Class action suits at the ebay level are worthless to the plaintiffs and worth gold to the lawyers. I was a member of a class action suit (that I never signed up for) against ebay and I still have the "settlement" check from it. The settlement was for about $5.00 but after attorneys fees the amount was 27 cents. Not only that but the check arrived after the expiration date on it so even if I wanted to collect my 27 cents, I was shit outta luck.

The whole thing was a bad joke and the only ones laughing were the attorneys.
 
the opt out link takes you to the "Closing your account" page. So how do you opt out and retain your account? You cant?

"Updated provisions governing how disputes between eBay and eBay users are resolved.
The User Agreement contains an Agreement to Arbitrate, which will, with limited exception, require you and eBay to submit claims to binding and final arbitration, unless you opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate by November 9, 2012. Unless you opt-out: (1) you will only be permitted to pursue claims against eBay on an individual basis, not as part of any class or representative action or proceeding and (2) you will only be permitted to seek relief (including monetary, injunctive, and declaratory relief) on an individual basis." So it sounds like they give you an option here, but really its either comply or close your account?
 
ok found out the important opt out info here. You have to mail it in. Its probably worth your time to do so.

This is the opt-out procedure as contained in the user agreement.

"1. Opt-Out Procedure
You can choose to reject this Agreement to Arbitrate ("opt-out") by mailing us a written opt-out notice ("Opt-Out Notice"). For new eBay users, the Opt-Out Notice must be postmarked no later than 30 days after the date you accept the User Agreement for the first time. If you are already a current eBay user and previously accepted the User Agreement prior to the introduction of this Agreement to Arbitrate, the Opt-Out Notice must be postmarked no later than November 9, 2012. You must mail the Opt-Out Notice to eBay Inc., c/o National Registered Agents, Inc., 2778 W. Shady Bend Lane, Lehi, UT 84043.
The Opt-Out Notice must state that you do not agree to this Agreement to Arbitrate and must include your name, address, and the user ID(s) and email address(es) associated with the eBay account(s) to which the opt-out applies. You must sign the Opt-Out Notice for it to be effective. This procedure is the only way you can opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate. If you opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate, all other parts of the User Agreement and its Legal Disputes Section will continue to apply to you. Opting out of this Agreement to Arbitrate has no effect on any previous, other, or future arbitration agreements that you may have with us."
 
Stiler said:
or the fact that you will no longer be able to sue/take ebay to court, as tehy can have their highly paid million dollar lawyers drag it out in court when you don't have nearly enough money to do such a thing because you can no longer join with many other people and pool your money together in a class action suit, which coudl then result in ebay losing out on millions in lawer fee's + millions to the plantiffs.
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Well if you take them to small claims court many places do not allow "lawyering" in the traditional sense, yes they can have a lawyer that represents the company but he doesn't work like a lawyer in that sense. It's doubtful you'll need to sue eBay for more than small claims type of money, and if you do, maybe going to proper court wouldn't be half bad.

NIVO said:
ok found out the important opt out info here. You have to mail it in. Its probably worth your time to do so.
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Yeah I caught that earlier on too, basically make super fucking easy to have you agree to the new terms (you read it, you agree) but if you want to opt-out you need to write them a letter asking for it. They are definitely banking on a large portion of their users to not want to waste a stamp to get this done.
 
nutzo said:
You mean that I won't be able to join a class action lawsuit that results in a $5 coupon for me and millions for the lawyers?

Bummer.....
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My sentiments exactly. They just end up driving up prices across the board as companies have to pay for these sometimes frivolous lawsuits that cost millions.
 
Well, according to those terms, Ebay couldn't pursue a class action lawsuit against me either... Which is good because I could just make a window cleaning service corperation for ebay staff only and then just clean them with pee. Then when they made their class action lawsuit for damages, I would be all EULA in yo faces, yo.
 
I think these "independent arbitration" clauses/rules are inherently unfair for the user/consumer. But on the other hand, I think class action lawsuit have gone from being unique and meaningful events to being "everyone and their brother suing for some reason" (okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration).

I think I've been on one or two class-action suits (i.e., I never opted-out of the suit), but I still have no idea what I got from it. IMHO, why would I participate in a class-action lawsuit (not as the person/party that initiates it, but as a member of the class) if I'm not really granted damages proportional to the charges? Why should I be party to getting already-overpaid lawyers (IMHO) even more money? Sure, the point to class action lawsuits and resulting punitive damages for the entity isn't for them to pay it all out to the customers. But if the customers were the reason for this to happen, what sense is that? And on that note, as much as I don't think it's fair to have a "poor" customer go up against a "rich" company on an independent arbitration basis, I also don't think class-action lawsuits are a good thing anymore (perhaps at one time they were).

But at least there's a choice for ebay users in this case.

deadrody said:
I really don't understand why eBay continues to pretend that getting people to check a box or click a button relieves them of their rights under the law.

You cannot be required to waive your rights under a contract. My right to be part of a class action lawsuit is independent of whatever arrangement eBay thinks they have with me.

They really need to get their heads out of their asses.
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Sadly that's far from true. The court (and I think more than one appeals court) sided with AT&T on its independent arbitration clause already.
 
DrDoug said:
Class action suits at the ebay level are worthless to the plaintiffs and worth gold to the lawyers. I was a member of a class action suit (that I never signed up for) against ebay and I still have the "settlement" check from it. The settlement was for about $5.00 but after attorneys fees the amount was 27 cents. Not only that but the check arrived after the expiration date on it so even if I wanted to collect my 27 cents, I was shit outta luck.

The whole thing was a bad joke and the only ones laughing were the attorneys.
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I have to agree with this. Class actions are great to make some headlines and maybe force companies to think harder when they want to screw with consumers, but that's about it.

On that note, how about a class action against the legal profession?
 
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