Statement from the Economic Justice Committee Condemning the Republicans' move to take away Americans' right to take corporations to court.
Last week Republicans in Congress betrayed American consumers and empowered Wall Street greed by revoking the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule against forced arbitration in the banking and financial services industries.
Most financial contracts now contain forced arbitration rules requiring that all disputes be resolved by time-consuming, individual arbitration hearings before arbitrators selected by the bank and therefore dependent on them for continued business. Forced arbitration prevents consumers who have been cheated, denied, or abused from seeking justice in court. When Wells Fargo opened false accounts in customer's names and forced car-loan customers to buy unnecessary over-priced insurance, and when Equifax failed to protect the private personal financial information of 143,000,000 consumers from criminal hackers, those who suffered damages are barred by forced arbitration rules from going to court.
After years of study, during the Obama administration the CFPB issued an Arbitration Rule forbidding forced arbitration and restoring the ability of people to file individual and class action lawsuits. Republicans in Congress have now revoked that rule despite the united opposition of consumer organizations and every Democratic senator and representative."
To help us fight this and other injustices, check out our economic justice committee’s talking points here.
Most financial contracts now contain forced arbitration rules requiring that all disputes be resolved by time-consuming, individual arbitration hearings before arbitrators selected by the bank and therefore dependent on them for continued business. Forced arbitration prevents consumers who have been cheated, denied, or abused from seeking justice in court. When Wells Fargo opened false accounts in customer's names and forced car-loan customers to buy unnecessary over-priced insurance, and when Equifax failed to protect the private personal financial information of 143,000,000 consumers from criminal hackers, those who suffered damages are barred by forced arbitration rules from going to court.
After years of study, during the Obama administration the CFPB issued an Arbitration Rule forbidding forced arbitration and restoring the ability of people to file individual and class action lawsuits. Republicans in Congress have now revoked that rule despite the united opposition of consumer organizations and every Democratic senator and representative."
To help us fight this and other injustices, check out our economic justice committee’s talking points here.
[last updated 10/29/17]
