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This is one of the tradeoffs of forcing arbitration. If you take away my ability to file suit, you pick up more of the fees. When I did it last year, filing as a plaintiff was a flat $250. Getting pissed off people to come up with $250 may be a challenge but not impossible.

* I'm not sure if you could pull a Thiel/Hulk Hogan thing to bankroll an arbitration swarm but if so, this could definitely get ugly for companies that misbehave.

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"this could definitely get ugly for companies that misbehave"

It doesn't just have to be companies that misbehave. If you don't like your competitor, maybe you'll sponsor that $250 per user to allow their userbase to throw arbitrations at them.

You can burn your competitor down at a ratio of at least 1:5 if you do something like this. If you take some fees for every case you win or that ends up settling, the ratio will be far better than 1:5

The arbitration system as it stands is a tool that allows anyone with enough money and intention to smite any company by pulling together unhappy users and paying arbitration fees for them.

If only companies had a way to escape the arbitration system... oh wait, they self select this system even though there's nothing forcing them to !

Arbitration is a tool, but it's totally unfair to say it's used by anyone else than the company choosing it.

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