Sony ToS changes influenced by US Supreme Court Ruling

The specific ruling is the AT&T vs. Concepcion suit. Short version: the case concerned a cell phone contract that prohibited plaintiffs who had a dispute with AT&T from bringing class action lawsuits against them, or joining a group of plaintiffs together for one big class-action suit. At least, that’s how I understood it. If I got it wrong/misunderstood, feel free to correct me.

PDF of the case: http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/09-893.pdf

Taken from CNN, Sony said:

“The Supreme Court recently ruled in the AT&T case that language like this is enforceable. The updated language in the TOS is designed to benefit both the consumer and the company by ensuring that there is adequate time and procedures to resolve disputes.”

Basically, all problems will be handled through arbitrators now, who are usually retired judges who go for about $300/hour, with the cost being split between both parties. CNN also points out that arbitration doesn’t involve a jury, which may include people more sympathetic to consumers than corporations. There’s also the fact that they’re just really bad to use if you’re a consumer.

Sony still probably doesn’t have much to go on. Even with the AT&T ruling, and the fact that Sony provides an “opt-out” clause, there’s still the fact that the ruling seemed to be for allowing arbitration only for small amounts of money. There’s also the general legalities of Sony’s ToS as well, which many believe is shaky at best since Sony, and others who use ToS agreements, seem to bank on the fact that you won’t, or can’t, read them.

As CNN points out, it takes 45 seconds, using a game controller, to scroll to the part of the document that describes the legal waiver. It takes a minute and a half to scroll through the entire document, and certainly much longer to actually read it. And it’ll take much longer to actually understand it if you’re not a lawyer.

As I said here, you can opt-out of this specific section of the ToS. And I really recommend that you do.

Letter template provided by Giantbomb.

Via – CNN