Disputes between you and a service

Introduction

If a party does something illegal or harms either on a physical or financial way another party, they may start a dispute. The terms of most services set some rules related to dispute resolution, which may negatively affect your rights. Therefore, it is essential to understand what they imply.

Having a reduced time period to take Legal Action

If you wish to bring legal action against a service about a past incident, you may not be able to do so if the Terms you agreed to implied a reduced time period. As a result it may be worthy to carefully read that section of the Terms to know exactly how much time you might have before your right to take legal action expires.

What is a Class Action Waiver?

The right to be represented in a class action (or representative action) exists in the US and some European countries.

It allows people who have been similarly injured by the same accused to take legal action by a single lawsuit instead of individually.

Some Terms of Service try to limit that right. By agreeing to them, you could waive (= renounce to) your right to a class action, which might reduce your chances to be successful in a case.

What is Binding Arbitration?

Arbitration is a method used to resolve disputes outside of the courts. An impartial third party, called arbitrator, is chosen to decide on the outcome of the dispute. If the arbitration is binding, it means it’s enforceable in law.

This way of dispute resolution is often used by businesses since it is cheaper and faster than going to court and because some topics may require an expert to mediate the dispute. However, arbitrators aren’t required to render a decision based upon law or evidences, so if you resolve a dispute by this method you should fully trust the arbitrator, otherwise you could end up with an unfair decision and wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.