Why signing up for a free trial could take away your rights to a jury trial

Every day, consumers may be unknowingly signing away their rights to sue companies – such as online retail platforms, gig economy apps, and streaming services – even if the claims have no relation to the service a person signed up for.

Every day, consumers may be unknowingly signing away their rights to sue companies – such as online retail platforms, gig economy apps, and streaming services – even if the claims have no relation to the service a person signed up for. In a current lawsuit, Walt Disney World is arguing that the contract a widower entered when signing up for the Disney+ streaming service several years ago means that a wrongful death lawsuit he’s brought against a restaurant at the theme park cannot go forward in court. Disney joins other companies such as Airbnb and Walmart that are using increasingly aggressive strategies in attempts to steer lawsuits they face from consumers into arbitration, a private legal process viewed as disadvantaging plaintiffs. Customers more and more must agree to contracts with sweeping arbitration clauses to use their services, but the consequences can be larger than they can be expected to comprehend. “The Average Joe in society doesn’t know what arbitration is, let alone understand the content of what they’re signing,” said Creighton University Law Professor and arbitration expert Hossein Fazilatfar. The issue of so-called “infinite arbitration clauses” will likely need to be addressed by the Supreme Court, Fazilatfar and other arbitration law experts told CNN, as the high court’s previous arbitration-related precedents have turbocharged the use of such contracts. In the Disney case, a widower has sued the amusement park company on behalf of his dead wife after she suffered a fatal allergic reaction, allegedly from a meal she ate at a park restaurant in 2023. Disney has asked the court to move the dispute to arbitration, meaning the case would not go before a jury or otherwise continue in court. To make the argument, Disney is pointing to a subscriber agreement the widower allegedly entered when signing up for Disney+ that included an arbitration clause, as well as the Terms of Condition in the online platform he used to buy Epcot tickets for his family for the 2023 trip.