Supreme Court Decisions Affect Class Actions, E-commerce and Arbitrations

While both the Dell Computer Corp. v. Union des consommateurs (Dell Computer) and Rogers Wireless Inc. v. Muroff (Rogers Wireless) cases originated in the Québec courts, the reasoning in each will have significant impact across the country. In both cases, the plaintiff consumers purported to commence a class action in the Québec Superior Court. The defendants immediately objected, arguing that the parties had agreed to arbitrate the disputes. The plaintiffs responded that an agreement to arbitrate could not oust the courts’ jurisdiction to hear class actions and that the agreement to arbitrate