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Facebook agreed to restore news pages on its site in Australia after it said late Monday that it had reached a favorable deal with the government there.
The deal, which came after 11th-hour negotiations and intense backlash against the company, would enable Facebook to run news without having to go through a government-run arbitration process, Facebook’s head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, said in a statement.
Read moreThe Hong Kong Court of First Instance stays third party proceedings commenced by an insured against an insurer, on the basis that the parties are bound by the arbitration clause contained in the insurance policy. Despite the outcome being that the main action and the third party proceedings will ultimately be pursued in different forums, by upholding the parties’ contractual agreement to arbitrate, the Court reinforces its pro-arbitration credentials and the principle of party autonomy.
Read moreIn the rush to close a deal, dispute resolution clauses and arbitration agreements are often given little, if any, consideration. This can have serious consequences after the ink is dry.
Not only is it critically important to tailor your dispute resolution clause to suit your particular project, any agreement to arbitrate should clearly describe the types of disputes it is intended to cover and whether those disputes are required to be referred to arbitration.
As the WA Court of Appeal recently found, unless an arbitration agreement requires a dispute to be referred to arbitration, a court, in turn, will not have to refer the matter to arbitration under s.8 of the Commercial Arbitration Act 2012 (WA).
When parties to a contract agree to settle any claims that may arise between them through arbitration, the Federal Arbitration Act (the FAA) sets forth a national policy favoring arbitration. As a matter of public policy, however, New York has sought—through the 2018 enactment of §7515 of the New York Civil Practice Law and Rules—to exempt certain types of claims from arbitration, including claims alleging discrimination under the New York State Human Rights Law. Through §7515, New York seeks to provide those who claim to have been victimized by sexual assault a public forum in which to air their grievances.
Read moreSen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., prodded Robert Cook, CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Thursday in a letter to “conduct a thorough review” of Robinhood’s activities during the GameStop trading frenzy.
In her letter, Warren also asked Cook to explain how FINRA will respond to Robinhood’s role “in recent market volatility, its decision to cut off customers’ trading, and the broader concerns about market fairness that these events represent.”
Read moreComplex cases can present difficult legal issues but may also illuminate how courts evaluate questions such as when a party has waived its right to arbitrate. This is true regardless of the type of claims presented because the analytical framework spans diverse areas of law. District Judge Allison D. Burroughs’ recent Memorandum and Order addresses arbitrability issues and waiver of the right to seek arbitration in a detailed fashion. In re: Intuniv Antitrust Litigation, Case No. 1:16-cv-12653-ADB, (D. Mass.), originally decided Jan. 29, 2021, but filed Feb. 11, 2021.
Read moreThe promise of arbitration has traditionally centred upon a faster, more efficient, and less costly way of resolving commercial disputes. The reality of arbitration proceedings, however, does not always deliver on this promise.
Surveys conducted in recent years suggest that cost and delay are some of the negative and discouraging characteristics of international arbitration. They also show a commercial imperative to simplify the arbitral processes, including in particular for lower-value claims.
Read moreWhen the coronavirus pandemic heralded the globe in 2020, little was predictable, let alone known, in terms of the paralysis and crises it would cause, given the unquantifiable damage and its impact on global socio-economic livelihood. The scale of the outbreak is unprecedented and quite extraordinary. One stark reality of COVID-19 is that many commercial disputes are bound inevitably to result in court or arbitration proceedings due to the adverse impact of the pandemic.
Read moreAn agreement to submit to non-binding arbitration is not an enforceable arbitration agreement under the English Arbitration Act 1996. The court dismissed an application for stay of English court proceedings under s9, citing absence of a valid arbitration agreement between the parties. The court held that an arbitration agreement must provide for a binding determination of disputes: IS Prime Ltd v (1) TF Global Markets (UK) Ltd (2) TF Global Markets (AUST) PTY LTD (3) Think Capital Ltd (2020) [2020] EWHC 3375 (Comm)
Read moreIt is an all too common scenario – a patent infringement complaint has been filed and the parties agree to resolve the dispute prior to service of the complaint. Yet they are unable to reach an agreement and the lawsuit moves forward. The next off-ramp settlement on the litigation highway is often thought to be mediation or arbitration. However, these processes are typically not pursued until later in the litigation, after claim construction has occurred and discovery is well underway. All this time the fee meter keeps running. Indeed, a substantial number of cases make it all the way to the proverbial ‘courthouse steps’ before settling.
Read moreOn 28 December 2020, the federal No Surprises Act (Act)1 was enacted. The Act seeks to protect patients from so-called “surprise medical bills” in certain emergency and nonemergency settings for out-of-network patients. This alert focuses on the Act’s arbitration provisions but first provides necessary background to those provisions.
Read moreAs Democrats in Congress craft an agenda in line with President Joe Biden’s stated focus on worker issues, they’re resurfacing long-standing efforts to address arbitration clauses in the employment context.
Controversial arbitration clauses in employment contracts are those that generally require those who sign them to agree not to pursue workplace disputes through lawsuits in court, and to instead pursue any claims through an arbitration process. By 2024, such agreements would apply to roughly 80 percent of private-sector employees not in a union, according to an estimate in May 2019 by the nonpartisan research nonprofit the Economic Policy Institute and the pro-worker social justice advocacy group The Center for Popular Democracy.
Read moreThe record number of new arbitration cases registered with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2020 highlights the confidence that investors retain in resolving their disputes with states and state sponsored companies through arbitration, an expert has said.
According to ICSID, which is part of the World Bank and deals in international investment dispute resolution and conciliation, there were 58 new cases registered with it last year, up from the previous record high of 56 in 2018 and the 39 recorded in 2019. The number of cases registered with ICSID has typically been rising since the late 1990s.
Read moreNew Jersey business owners may be reluctant to introduce arbitration programs for their employees because of a state law enacted in 2019 that prohibits agreements that prevent litigation of workplace disputes in court by directing them into arbitration. Fortunately, the likelihood is that in most instances, New Jersey’s law is not enforceable and an employer that wants to steer employee disputes to arbitration, rather than court, can do so.
Read moreOn Jan. 15, 2021, a New York state court judge issued an opinion denying an insurer’s motion to dismiss a claim for coverage under a representations and warranties insurance (RWI) policy in WPP Group USA, Inc. v. RB/TDM Investors, LLC et al. More specifically, the court rejected the insurer’s argument that the claim was subject to certain exclusions under the policy and ordered the parties to proceed with discovery.
On 28 December 2020, the federal No Surprises Act (Act)1 was enacted. The Act seeks to protect patients from so-called “surprise medical bills” in certain emergency and nonemergency settings for out-of-network patients. This alert focuses on the Act’s arbitration provisions but first provides necessary background to those provisions.
Read moreThe tsunami of litigation brought on by the pandemic has crystalized the importance of “dispute-resolution” clauses.
In particular two high-profile cases – pandemic-related cases against Airbnb and Amazon — have brought this to light. These clauses can be potent tool for business owners to minimize litigation risk.
In a well-written business contract, parties will set contours that would govern any future dispute between them. In such a dispute-resolution clause, the parties often select a court location, consent to its jurisdiction, and waive the right to a jury trial.
Read moreOver 2,500 COVID-19–related employment lawsuits were filed in the United States in 2020. Ogletree Deakins’ Interactive COVID-19 Litigation Trackerhighlights the industries impacted, locations, and types of claims in these matters.
Read moreOn 27 October 2020 the Italian Council of Ministers approved the Law Decree no. 137/2020 on “Further urgent measures regarding health protection, support for workers and businesses, justice and safety, related to the epidemiological emergency from COVID-19” (the so-called Ristori Decree), which was published in the Official Gazette on 28 October 2020 and came into force on 29 October 2020.
The Ristori Decree sought to provide “refreshments” for the economic sectors affected, directly or indirectly, by the new series of restrictive measures imposed by Prime Ministerial Decrees of 13, 18 and 24 October 2020, to contain the worsening of the pandemic in Autumn 2020. It should be pointed out that the Decree may be subject to amendments by the Parliament at the time of its conversion into law.
Read moreIn 2020, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in Soaring Wind Energy LLC (SWE) v. CATIS USA Inc., et al. In that case, the various members of a limited liability company (LLC) entered into an agreement to provide worldwide marketing of wind energy equipment and services. The agreement contained an arbitration clause that required all disputes between the parties to be arbitrated. The arbitration clause contained the following language.
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