Supreme Court Of Canada Puts The Breaks On Uber's Arbitration Clause

The Supreme Court of Canada recently released its decision in Uber Technologies Inc. v. Heller, a dispute between the large ridesharing and food delivery company and one of its drivers. The litigation centered on an arbitration clause in Uber's standard form contract with all of its drivers. Technology companies and web-based services that rely on arbitration clauses to limit their legal liability in their standard form contracts and online terms of service should pay attention to this decision as a cautionary tale.

The dispute began when Mr. Heller, one of Uber's drivers, sought employment benefits from the company under provincial employment legislation. Uber refused and relied on the arbitration clause in their online contract with Mr. Heller. The contract provided that drivers could not sue Uber in the event of any legal dispute with the company. Instead, the contract required Mr. Heller to resolve the dispute by arbitration in the Netherlands and pay almost