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Comment by username223 | Hacker News Reader

I'm loving it, too. It's a cheeky strategy, and I hope to see it used at other companies that make workers sign binding arbitration agreements, then screw them over. But then I read this:

> Lawyers who claim to represent more than 12,000 drivers who have filed arbitration demands have sued Uber, arguing the company has refused to pay obligatory filing fees to get the process started.

So apparently Uber can just say "we're not gonna" if they decide that arbitration is no longer working in their favor. Does that open them up to a class action suit on behalf of all the drivers who were denied arbitration? I have no idea, IANAL.

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Yes, it does open them to litigation. Failure to pay arbitration fees is now considered wavier of a contractual term to demand arbitration in many jurisdictions.[1][2][3]

The American Arbitration Association has been cracking down on companies which refuse to pay. They send out letters to companies telling them that not only does the AAA reject this arbitration, the company can no longer use AAA services at all. This throws the case back into the judicial system.

"The cost of arbitration is turning out to be real leverage for plaintiffs' lawyers who are smart enough to adapt to the privatization of litigation. It may not be long before companies like Uber start wishing for the good old days of class actions."

[1] http://www.outsourcingjustice.com/11th-circuit-hernandez-aco... [2] https://demlplaw.com/firm-blog/new-decision-failure-pay-arbi... [3] https://www.publicjustice.net/bait-and-switch-many-corporati...

Not necessarily. It depends on why the arbitration agreement was considered binding in the courts. If it's because it's assumed to be a parallel legal process then I could see a class action being undertaken with the argument that Uber is using the arbitration clause to deny the class their due process rights. I am also not a lawyer but I'm assuming that the courts are presided over by reasonable people which is usually the case.

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