In 2012, two California moms got fed up with what they saw as deceptive marketing by General Mills. They looked at packaging on products such as their Nature Valley granola bars, which used the words “All Natural.” The reality, of course, is that the Nature Valley products contained highly processed ingredients.
While this case is interesting, what is more interesting and important is what happened just a few weeks ago.
On March 26, 2014 a judge denied a motion to dismiss this case. One week later, General Mills updated its terms of service on its website. What did those new terms include?
By using the site, liking their facebook page, or entering any of their contests, any user agrees to forgo the right to trial. They then altered it further to say that even by purchasing their products a person agreed to this clause.
In other words, by interacting with the company, any person is forced to use arbitration to settle their grievances with the company. The company chooses an arbitrator, and the consumer is forced to agree with what the arbitrator decides. This type of forced arbitration is how large companies try to circumvent the rights of the consumer.
Julia Duncan, director of federal programs and an arbitration expert at the American Association for Justice said, “It’s essentially trying to protect the company from all accountability, even when it lies, or say, an employee deliberately adds broken glass to a product.”
The New York Times broke the story about the altered terms of service and it caused a firestorm of public outrage. After intense public pressure, General Mills removed the forced arbitration clause from its website. However, this only serves to highlight the underlying problem with the power of corporations in the legal world. General Mills tried to make it so that no consumer could ever sue them.
It’s not just a problem for consumers. In 1999, Allstate called in agents and essentially told them that they must either sign a new contract – one which included a section that required the agents to give up their right to sue Allstate for any reason – or lose their jobs entirely. Today, 31 former agents await a Jury trial to hear arguments that this was a coercion, but the odds are stacked against them. If they lose, they lose everything.
Forced arbitration and other abuses of the law are used by corporations all the time, including insurance companies. It is almost certain that your insurance companies have tried to use arbitration clauses in their paperwork. And, as dozens of forms are shuffled past the consumer who just wants good coverage, it’s hard to examine every sentence. Instead, most people simply sign, relying on the “good will” of the agent or company to do what is right should something go wrong.
However, underhanded behavior such as that displayed by General Mills, or dragging out a lawsuit against its own agents for 13 years like Allstate is doing is the corporate norm. Their bottom line is profits at any cost. Doing what’s right simply doesn’t enter the equation.
Speak up about your rights. Seek legal representation whenever you have to face a corporate challenge. Let them know that these abuses have to stop and the rights of the consumers have to be protected. We have a right to be safe, and to be treated like human beings. When those rights are infringed, we have the right to seek fair compensation through the legal system.
General Mills, Forced Arbitration, and Consumer Rights. by Greg Hamblin