Internet – Page 22 – Mouse Print*

Updated every Monday! Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Amazon Quietly Changes Terms of Service Dropping Mandatory Arbitration

June 7, 2021June 7, 2021 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

In a move consumer advocates never thought they would ever see, a major company, Amazon, has dropped from its terms of service the mandatory arbitration clause to settle disputes. This now allows Amazon customers to sue them in court and be part of class action lawsuits.

The change occurred on May 3, 2021, with no announcement or fanfare, as first reported last week by the Wall Street Journal.

The new language in Amazon’s “conditions of use” is short and sweet.

*MOUSE PRINT:

DISPUTES
Any dispute or claim relating in any way to your use of any Amazon Service will be adjudicated in the state or Federal courts in King County, Washington, and you consent to exclusive jurisdiction and venue in these courts. We each waive any right to a jury trial.

The change came about because some brilliant consumer lawyers used Amazon’s old mandatory arbitration rules to their own advantage. Those rules provided that Amazon would cover consumers’ arbitration filing fees. So what did these lawyers do? They filed 75,000 arbitration cases on behalf of Amazon Echo owners complaining that the smart speakers recorded users without their permission. That move triggered a bill for tens of millions dollars in filing fees that Amazon was asked to pay.

For reference, here is Amazon’s old rule mandating arbitration of claims:

*MOUSE PRINT:

DISPUTES
Any dispute or claim relating in any way to your use of any Amazon Service, or to any products or services sold or distributed by Amazon or through Amazon.com will be resolved by binding arbitration, rather than in court, except that you may assert claims in small claims court if your claims qualify. The Federal Arbitration Act and federal arbitration law apply to this agreement.
…
Payment of all filing, administration and arbitrator fees will be governed by the AAA’s rules. We will reimburse those fees for claims totaling less than $10,000 unless the arbitrator determines the claims are frivolous. [Emphasis added]
…
We each agree that any dispute resolution proceedings will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class, consolidated or representative action. If for any reason a claim proceeds in court rather than in arbitration we each waive any right to a jury trial.

What doesn’t quite make sense is that Amazon’s old rule only promised to reimburse consumers’ filing fees and not that they would pay them upfront. So we asked the consumer lawyer who filed these tens of thousands of arbitration cases and then billed Amazon for millions in filing fees to explain if he really laid out all that money from his own pocket to file these cases. He did not respond.

Updated every Monday! Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Old Navy Deceptive Pricing Case Settled

May 17, 2021 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

In 2019, we reported that a Washington state consumer was suing Old Navy for advertising phony discounts from artificially high regular or original prices. [See complaint.] Now, lawyers announced they have reached a tentative settlement subject to court approval. No details of the settlement were released, but some type of payment to affected shoppers is likely, along with some guidelines on future advertising of discounts.

Lawyers for the consumer really prepared for this case by tracking millions of prices on the Old Navy website for two years, and found that those items virtually never sold for the stated full, regular price. Since most merchandise at Old Navy is their own brand, the company sets its own inflated list/regular/original price on their goods thus making their current sale prices seem like bigger bargains than they really are.

*MOUSE PRINT:

As an example from Old Navy’s website earlier this year, the crossed-out price of $34.99 allegedly was rarely if ever charged, so shoppers are being misled into believing that they will save over $22 on this item if purchased now.

We’ll post information in Consumer World on how to file a claim in the Old Navy when the settlement is finalized.

Updated every Monday! Subscribe to free weekly newsletter.

Lowe’s SpringFest Grill Deal Only Looked Smoking Hot

May 3, 2021May 3, 2021 by Edgar (aka MrConsumer)

R.M. of Connecticut wrote to us last week complaining about a Lowe’s TV commercial that featured quite a deal on a Weber grill during their first ever SpringFest event.

This was exactly the three-burner Weber grill she was looking for, and she knew they were normally over $500. However, R.M. discovered that $379 was not the actual sale price for this model but only by freeze-framing the commercial on her 60-inch HDTV so she could read the fine print.

*MOUSE PRINT:

Lowe's real price

The real price of this unit was more than double the price shown on the screen, and that was only disclosed in tiniest of print for less than four seconds. The big print $379 price was actually for a lower-end unit and only for a two-burner model at that.

Under state consumer law, such as the one in Massachusetts, pictorial misrepresentations are just as deceptive as verbal ones.

No advertisement shall be used which would mislead or tend to mislead buyers or prospective buyers, through pictorial representations or in any other manner, as to the product being offered for sale.

We wrote to Lowe’s three times asking why they would run such a misleading ad, and how it might avoid similar issues in the future. The company did not respond and that says a lot.