Good article. Mandatory binding arbitration is something that has been long past due for being made illegal. It also shows very clearly the falicy of "if you don't like it go somewhere else". When nearly every company is doing this, their power to shape the market is evident.
While market forces are in place and proactive consumers could help shape this, their influence is asymmetric. They have limited time, do not have resources to dedicate to learning about these issues and pushing for changes or switching to only buying from companies without these clauses. This is where collective resources, taxes, should be spent in looking out for the greater good of the economy and citizens through regulations. Regulations being laws and enforcement of those laws that ensure fairness and minimize fraud.
Making money selling cars that are "new * " ( * now maybe with cosmetic or mechanical damage) is an erosion of quality of goods that benefit companies and not consumers. Over time and in net effects it hurts the economy as you also have less transparency - people now hesitate to buy goods or take longer to buy goods because they're not sure of quality that they might receive. In this example it's a car, but it could also very well be food, drugs or any other more essential item. Their time is spent further evaluating the items they need to buy rather than reading to their kids at night, spending mental energy on taking night classes to gain more skills, or simply contributing to the economy through their work.
If you're willing to spend half an hour digging into problems, you'll easily discover that Tesla is inundated with quality issues and people bickering with the company to get warranty work or have the company honour their returns.
Of course, some people are convinced it's all a giant conspiracy against Tesla. Ironic, really.
In my view, there is no situation in which binding arbitration should be an enforceable term in any kind of consumer agreement. In fact, I’m struggling to think of any situation where it would be applicable for any other agreement either, outside of international treaties. What’s the legitimate case for these terms?
Exactly, arbitration can be the starting point but making it the only possible action is just crazy and MUST be illegal
Furthermore, it is bad business to hide behind any clause, period. They could just call them, tell them that there was a minor accident and that they can have the car with 5% discount. I'm pretty sure if they didn't agree there would be plenty more people buying the car with such a discount and a fixed fender bender damage
While market forces are in place and proactive consumers could help shape this, their influence is asymmetric. They have limited time, do not have resources to dedicate to learning about these issues and pushing for changes or switching to only buying from companies without these clauses. This is where collective resources, taxes, should be spent in looking out for the greater good of the economy and citizens through regulations. Regulations being laws and enforcement of those laws that ensure fairness and minimize fraud.
Making money selling cars that are "new * " ( * now maybe with cosmetic or mechanical damage) is an erosion of quality of goods that benefit companies and not consumers. Over time and in net effects it hurts the economy as you also have less transparency - people now hesitate to buy goods or take longer to buy goods because they're not sure of quality that they might receive. In this example it's a car, but it could also very well be food, drugs or any other more essential item. Their time is spent further evaluating the items they need to buy rather than reading to their kids at night, spending mental energy on taking night classes to gain more skills, or simply contributing to the economy through their work.