arbitration

Morgan Stanley tries to stop Facebook investor arbitration

Morgan Stanley, the lead banker on Facebook's messy IPO, is attempting to stop a Facebook investor from seeking securities arbitration related to the stock offering, according to a report from Reuters.

Because the investor isn't a Morgan Stanley customer, the firm has argued in a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court that the arbitration shouldn't proceed. It argues the investor, Uma Swaminathan of East Brunswick, N.J., ordered shares through Vanguard Financial, according to the report.

Swaminathan, meanwhile, has said the botched IPO has cost the investor $1.9 million in damages.

Swaminathan filed a claim with … Read more

Watchdog calls eBay's user policy 'underhanded'

A consumer rights group accused eBay of making it tough for users to pursue litigation against the company and said the auction site operator's new user policy goes against the company's "commitment to openness."

Public Citizen, which called eBay's new user agreement "underhanded," takes issue with a section in eBay's policy that details how eBay and users' will handle legal disputes. In the agreement (scroll down to the section about legal disputes), eBay says that all claims that arise against eBay should be "resolved exclusively through final and binding arbitration," … Read more

Judge tentatively nixes arbitration in Kleiner Perkins sexism lawsuit

The venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers was tentatively denied its request for arbitration in the gender discrimination lawsuit brought by junior partner Ellen Pao.

According to Reuters, Judge Harold Kahn made a preliminary ruling today that the case should continue to go through the courts rather than be moved to third-party arbitration, which the firm requested last month.

"There is no arbitration agreement between plaintiff and defendant," Kahn wrote in his initial ruling, according to Reuters.

Kleiner Perkins, in a statement, said it believes it has strong arguments and precedent to move the matter to … Read more

Seagate wins $525M in arbitration spat with Western Digital

Seagate has won a major payout in an arbitration dispute with its chief rival, Western Digital.

On Friday, an arbitrator in Minnesota awarded Seagate $525 million after the hard drive maker alleged that Western Digital misappropriated "confidential information and trade secrets" from a former Seagate employee. According to Western Digital, the sum does not include interest, which will need to be determined at a later point.

Details of the dispute are confidential at this time, but Western Digital said in a statement today that it believes the arbitrator's decision wouldn't hold up in court.

"We … Read more

Supreme Court says parties can't contract around the arbitration rules

Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a much awaited decision concerning arbitration agreements. Hall Street Associates LLC v. Mattel Inc. Full Opinion in PDF format While this case won't grab many headlines and is unlikely to be featured on the evening news, arbitration agreements are very common in high-tech, which means that changes to this area of the law can have far reaching effects.

Arbitration clauses are popular for several reasons: (1) they dictate where a future case will be heard, (2) they remove the risks of trying the case to a jury, (3) they lessen exposure to … Read more