Court Of Appeal Invalidates Uber's Arbitration Clause

Summary

The Ontario Court of Appeal's first decision of 2019 bucks Ontario's general trend of enforcing arbitration agreements, and may have far-reaching consequences for arbitration in Ontario. In Heller v. Uber Technologies Inc., the Court of Appeal declared invalid the arbitration agreement in Uber's driver services agreement, paving the way for the driver's proposed class action to continue in the court system. All companies who use arbitration agreements should be aware of this decision and its potential consequences, especially those who use arbitration agreements in their employment or independent contractor agreements.

Background to the Heller decision and some of its practical consequences are set out below.