Class-action arbitration allowed in antitrust case

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Class-action arbitration allowed in antitrust case
April 23, 2006 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo

Cable TV subscribers sued their cable provider claiming antitrust violations, and the provider moved to compel arbitration in accordance with subscriber-provider agreements. The subscribers had several problems with the agreement, and tried to block the arbitration.

The court ordered the arbitration to go forward, that's the main thing.
Kristian v. Comcast Corp (1st Cir 04/20/2006).

Here's how the court treated five items:

Class action. The contract prohibited class and consolidated arbitrations. The court found that it was unlikely for any consumer to bring a private antitrust action without a class-action, and held that removing the prohibition was necessary for plaintiffs to be able to vindicate their statutory rights.

Limitation period. The contract required consumers to "contact" Comcast within one year of an event giving rise to a dispute. Federal and state antitrust statutes have a four year statute of limitations. The court held that the conflict between statute and contract must be decided by the arbitrator.

Treble damages. The contract excluded treble damages. Both federal and state statutes provide for treble damages.

Federal. The contract directly conflicts with the "shall" language in the federal statute, the antitrust statute's remedies cannot be waived, and therefore the court severed this clause from the contract (as it applied to the federal claim).
State. The state statute says "may." That created an ambiguity that the court said must be resolved by the arbitrator.

Attorney fees and costs. The contract said "you are responsible" for attorney fees and costs. Both federal and state antitrust statutes allow these items to be recovered by successful plaintiffs. The court disallowed this clause.