Discord’s newest update adds an arbitration clause to its terms of service. If you have installed the update and continued to use Discord, you have agreed to this arbitration clause. This means that you are waiving your right to sue and to congregate as a class action lawsuit.
What is a class action lawsuit?
This usually happens when a group of lawyers sue a company or corporation on behalf of the users of said company’s products, especially after the they misuse the users’ data. If the users win the class action lawsuit, the lawyers representing them take home millions while each user ends up with maybe a few bucks. While the users don’t get a lot of money out of it, class action lawsuits help keep the companies in check and make them own up to their mistakes.
That doesn’t sound bad. Is that bad?
For you? No. For companies? Yes. Even though the users rarely win class action lawsuits, it costs the companies a lot of time and money to fight these lawsuits. They could be putting this time and money into making their product better and adding new features that the users want. Plus, there are some instances where lawyers bring a class action lawsuit against a company, making the company waste time and money, for trivial reasons. In these cases, nobody wins except the lawyers bringing home lots of money.
Okay, so what’s arbitration?
Arbitration is a way for companies to avoid the time and money spent in a class action lawsuit and protect themselves from being sued for trivial reasons. With arbitration, unhappy users must now settle their problems with the company outside of court. This is both faster and cheaper for everyone involved, but it has some drawbacks.
What are those?
The arbitrator (person or persons chosen to decide the case) is usually less sympathetic to users than a jury is. Arbitration also means that the users cannot band together (congregate) to collectively sue the company; each user must individually settle via arbitration. That takes some power away from the users, especially since the losing party in arbitration usually cannot appeal the decision. In addition, arbitration usually ends up favorably for the company, not the user.
Is all of this legal?
In the United States, yes. The Supreme Court decided to make this legal in 2011. In Europe, no. Article 77 of the EU GDPR lets users lodge complaints with the possibility of judicial action.
So, is arbitration good or bad?
You can find many pros and cons to arbitration with a quick Google search, but arbitration is usually viewed as a negative for the user. This is because arbitration makes it harder to bring proper justice to companies that misuse or mishandle your data.
What are my options?
Chances are you’re already using many services for which you’ve agreed to forced arbitration without realizing it. Discord’s new Terms of Service is an interesting case because the company is allowing the users to opt out of the arbitration clause in the Terms of Service to retain their rights to congregate and make a class action lawsuit. Discord has said that users who opt out can continue to use Discord without any adverse effects (but take this with a grain of salt since the promise of no adverse effects is not legally binding).
I’m fine with the arbitration clause.
Awesome! At least you’re aware of the situation and can make educated decisions about arbitration clauses when you’re signing up for future services. I’d encourage you to pay attention in the future, as arbitration rarely benefits the user.
I’d like to opt out.
If you’d like to opt out of Discord’s arbitration clause, you must send and email (from your Discord account’s registered email) to arbitration-opt-out@discord.com within 30 days. Here’s a template, courtesy of /u/kelvinwop:
Dear Discord,
By this email, I am opting out of the agreement to arbitrate as authorized by the new changes to the Discord Terms of Service Agreement.
I DO NOT AGREE TO THE AGREEMENT TO ARBITRATE FOR THE ACCOUNT(S) LISTED/DESCRIBED BELOW:
kelvinwop#6523
with email: XXXXXXXX@gmail.com
and SMS: 218-XXX-XXXX
Please let me know immediately if there is additional information needed to implement my opt-out request. Finally, I would like to ask for written confirmation that you have received and processed this notice.
Sincerely,
XXXXXX XXXX
Just make sure to replace kelvinwop#6523, 218-XXX-XXXX, and XXXXXXXX@gmail.com with your full Discord Username, your phone number, and your email address.
Thanks to /u/gravityfallsfanatic- for posting this thread that got me wanting to write this.
Gamelub Writes 