Last week a California appeals court invalidated a car
dealer's mandatory arbitration and class waiver clause, holding
the sales contract's arbitration clause unconscionable and
therefore unenforceable to defeat a putative class action. In
Natalini v. Import Motors, Inc. ,
plaintiff sued under state consumer protection statutes alleging
that a car and its tires that he purchased from defendant were sold
as new when in fact they were used. When defendant Import
Motors moved to compel arbitration, the state trial court refused
and held that the sales contract's arbitration provision was
both procedurally and substantively unconscionable. Upholding
that ruling, the California appeals court held that the sales
contract's arbitration provision was procedurally
unconscionable because it (1) was an adhesion contract which,
standing alone, gave rise to a "minimal degree of procedural
unconscionability;" (2) was allegedly presented to plaintiff
without opportunity to review;
