Three years after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a key challenge to mandatory arbitration agreements in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, the legal rules favoring enforcement of arbitration provisions are fairly settled. Now, with their options dwindling in the courts, arbitration’s opponents are shifting their efforts to the policy arena.
Concepcion and the Supreme Court’s subsequent decision in American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant make clear that arbitration agreements cannot be invalidated just because they provide for dispute resolution on an individual rather than a class basis. Lower courts, as a result, routinely reject such challenges to arbitration contracts.
