Last month, in a putative class action lawsuit against
Guthy-Renker, a federal court judge in Los Angeles shed some light
on when a class action waiver clause in online terms and conditions
is – or is not – enforceable against consumers.
If such a clause is enforceable, then it means consumers
cannot sue the company in court and cannot bring
claims as part of a class action; instead, each individual consumer
would need to go through his or her own arbitration to arbitrate
the merits, or lack thereof, of his or her own claim. If, on the
other hand, such a clause is not enforceable, then the company in
question will face a class action lawsuit in court on behalf of
all consumers.
In the Guthy-Renker case, there were two plaintiffs named as
class representatives who presented the judge with two different
scenarios. Amy Friedman and Krystal Henry-McArthur each claimed
they had suffered hair loss as a result of having used the
company's Wen conditioner, and each had
