Because there’s no discovery. An arbitrator can ask for things, but they have no actual power to force a party to disclose anything. This is particularly true if you were try to get information from a third party.

The threat of class action litigation is the point. It might alter some shady behaviors. The fact that banksters and shady car dealers opposed the rule speaks for itself.

That’s because your harm was worth .... 31 cents. Not much to you right? Ok but now picture - capital one has 10 million people they rip off for 31 cents - illegally. Hey they just made 3.1 million dollars!

This might even be true - if it weren’t that the arbitration firms are paid by the company. Would you get re-hired to “arbitrate” if you weren’t making your “employer” look good?

The arbitrators are hired and paid for by the banks or car dealers. They have a vested interest in repeat business. Additionally, it is extremely difficult for the average consumer to stop institutional bad behavior through individual forced arbitration as the individual stakes are low and thus very little incentive…

Guess who’s most likely to be paying the arbitrator’s salary, though

In case you are interested, a longer analysis of why arbitration is bad (particularly related to cars). Steve Lehto used to write articles on Jalopnik and it’s sub-sites. He also tends to try to see both sides. This is one of his older ones.

So do you do plastic surgery too? Because the stretch marks around your mouth from sucking on corporate lobbyists cock for so long looks like a NASCAR track.

Bullshit. Only an “eye surgeon” who wants to make millions at the expense of patients without recourse would say something so demonstrably false.

Forcing a company to pay millions for doing wrong is not a “joke.”

I see you have no clue what this means. It means that not only are there no class action suits, but an individual is going to lose their tight to sue and be forced to use arbitration which favors the defendant (company) far more and the plaintiff will not get restitution. All those people that have to sue Wells Fargo…

Don’t get the idea that I support this rubbish because I surely don’t, it’s just that I’ve become quite the cynical bastard over the years, and the results of the last Presidential election hasn’t helped that any.

Hate to be that guy, but two GOP Senators did actually vote against this: Lindsey Graham (R, South Carolina) and John Kennedy (R, Louisiana).

It favors neither plaintiff or defendant.

Actually, no we haven’t. It’s been a constant give and take with the corporations slowly winning the game.

Hey buddy, remember how all the big banks managed to get their bullshit subprime mortgages rated AAA by the ratings bureaus? Yeah that’s right, they threatened to pull the rating bureau’s contracts and go elsewhere. Guess what the big banks do to arbitration firms? Yep, the exact same thing.

The arbitration company finds in favor of the company who forcing the binding arbitration clause about 95% of the time. How’s that a good thing for consumers?

Arbitration can be good. Making arbitration the only option is not good.

It favors neither plaintiff or defendant.