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Comment by cannonedhamster | Hacker News Reader

This is a good point and likely going to result in a massive class action that a few of these companies don't survive.

At least in the case of DoorDash, they have an arbitration clause in their TOS that effectively quashes any attempts at a class action.

Hopefully one day the US justice system will wake up to the fact that allowing companies to opt-out of the main mechanism preventing them from engaging in this sort of petty-crime-at-scale is not a good idea, but until then it's what we're stuck with.

State attorneys general are not bound by these TOSs.

I wonder if giving someone my credit card, having them add to DoorDash, then suing would be worth it.

I wonder if small claims court lawsuits could be used as precedent.

You can individually opt out of the arbitration clause, the problem is finding a critical mass of other people who opted out within the opt-out period.

Not unless we add another slot to the Supreme Court.

The Department of Labor didn't sign no arbitration agreement with DoorDash, and they get a raging hard-on for wage-theft cases. Management stealing tips, where people who didn't do the work but receive a portion (or more) of the tips are slam-dunk cases for them.

DoorDash has a mandatory arbitration clause (that I opted out of but most people don’t) so I fear the best we can hope for is a light tap from a state AG and a flimsy promise to “review our internal procedures” with no big change. It isn’t as though large numbers of people will stop using these services that deliberately abuse their “independent contractor” workers.

How do you arbitrarily opt out of mandatory arbitration clauses?

Well, the easiest way is to just not use the service...

Per https://www.doordash.com/terms/#section12 you have to send them an email with your account info within 30 days of signing up:

> (f) Opt Out. You may opt out of this Arbitration Agreement. If you do so, neither you nor the Company can force the other to arbitrate as a result of this Agreement. To opt out, you must notify the Company in writing no later than 30 days after first becoming subject to this Arbitration Agreement. Your notice must include your name and address, your DoorDash username (if any), the email address you used to set up your DoorDash account (if you have one), and a CLEAR statement that you want to opt out of this Arbitration Agreement. You must send your opt-out notice to: opt-out@doordash.com. If you opt out of this Arbitration Agreement, all other parts of this Agreement will continue to apply to you.

Free idea: browser extension that lights up when you visit a site with an arbitration clause and tells you how to opt out.

Bonus points, look for any opportunity to opt out at all. I get the feeling "sane defaults" are not the norm in terms of service.

Nice one. Will save that to when I have time.

They'll survive it. The pendulum has swung far toward corporations and awards don't tend to be death sentences these days.

What other company has been killed by a lawsuit lately, other than thorough frauds like for-profit colleges?

Well, there's Gawker, but that's also a special case.

PG&E?

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