The 5-3 ruling in American Express Co. v. Italian Colors Restaurant broke along usual ideological lines, with conservatives forming the majority and liberals objecting.
The decision was a high-stakes follow-on to AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the controversial 2011 ruling that the Federal Arbitration Act pre-empts state laws barring the waiver of class arbitration in consumer agreements. Consumer groups complained that without class action arbitration, the high cost of pursuing individual complaints against a company, compared with the small damages a single plaintiff might collect, would discourage claims and effectively make companies immune from challenge on issues of antitrust or labor and employment law.
