This is crazy. Disney is claiming that a wrongful death lawsuit cannot go forward (paraphrasing):
“sorry, your husband signed up to a Disney+ trial a couple of years ago, hence they accepted T&Cs that clearly stated that any dispute about our products should go through arbitration rather than through courts”.
Even if a consumer carefully reads the terms and conditions, how could they reasonably expect the ToS for a video game would affect the terms they are under at a Disney restaurant? That’s fucking nuts.
Future parents: “sorry kids, you cannot play that video game because there is an arbitration clause and one day you might want to visit Disney’s amusement parks.”
I’ve boycotted Disney for over a decade because of how conservative the corp is and how right-wing extremist they are with politics. IIRC Disney financed the campaign of a politician looking to eliminate background checks on firearms. Indeed, the company who entertains kids is happy to fight against basic gun control. So when Disney pulls a dick move like this arbitration clause it just reinforces the idea that boycotting Disney is the right move.
(edit) wow the ups and downs of the votes are interesting. ATM 9 up & 9 down. Can’t help but wonder who are these anti-human people who are happy to lick the corporate boots of Disney… capitalist fanatics disappointed that people would object to arbitration clauses perversely applied so broadly? I have to wonder if loyal Disney employees are following this thread.
If you look through the terms and conditions of everything you use, it will mention arbitration. Literally every single company has added that clause for US citizens. From streaming services and online subscriptions to smart TV’s and even socks. If it’s something you already own, they sent you an email awhile back telling you or they added a new “agree” somewhere along the line.
And I mean every company. If you look through the EULA or ToS of every single game, software, appliance, subscription, product, device, and service you have bought or signed up for (even free services like Discord) there will be an arbitration clause. Some of them will go as far as putting it on the box where it says “if you open this box, you automatically agree to our arbitration clause.” Some companies will put it inside the box saying shit like “if you do not agree, please return this product with X amount of days.” It’s super shady for shit where they throw away the box as they deliver it like refrigerators. But if you’ve bought a refrigerator within the last 5ish years, you’ve already “agreed.”
We’ve all been sleeping on this, but if you read through some of those things you hit “agree” on, you’d be surprised at how many more rights you were signing away than you used to be and thought you were. And it’s only been getting worse.