New Sony Terms of Service Ban Class Action Lawsuits, Is that Legal?

Want to continue using Sony online services? Well, you�ll need to give up your right to sue them in a class action lawsuit if you do. This week Sony has amended the terms of service on its online offerings that basically says, you can only sue them on your own, not in a group as a class action lawsuit. That seems to sound like they are expecting some class action lawsuits, probably stemming from the massive hack that saw them shut down the Playstation Network and Qriocity for a month and cost them around $170 million to fix.

If you are wondering if that includes previously filed class action lawsuits, because there are several in the works. It does not. Any case filed prior to August 20th has been grandfathered in.

The new clause reads:

Any Dispute Resolution Proceedings, whether in arbitration or court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class, consolidated, representative or private attorney general action...

This is obviously a way for them to minimize further damages from large scale screw ups on their part, because most people won�t be able to ever afford to sue Sony on an individual basis.

It is also do to a 2011 Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to ban class action lawsuits. According to that ruling, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Federal Arbitration Act of 1925 is supreme and that states cannot outlaw the banning of such suits.

Therefore, corporate accountability will now be on a user-by-user basis, which means, far less accountability for corporation since most users, just won�t be able to afford litigation.

If you wish to continue usage of services like Qriocity, Playstation Network and Station, and say, a hacker steals your information because of inadequate security and then racks up thousands in debt, legal fees, etc and does so to one million others, every single one of you would need to get your own lawyer. Surely, the lawyers had a hand in all this as well since it could mean massive new cases on their part. Sort of all seems unfair to the consumers in the end though, no?

If  you wish to opt out of the clause, as in, you want to sue them in the near future with a group of others, you can send them a letter and they will close your account and return and funds you have in it. No, that doesn�t mean they�ll return funds for purchased games and content. Yes, it means you would no longer be able to use their online services.

It also says this:

If the Class Action Waiver clause is found to be illegal or unenforceable, this entire Section 15 will be unenforceable, and the dispute will be decided by a court and you and the Sony Entity you have a dispute with each agree to waive in that instance, to the fullest extent allowed by law, any trial by jury.

Indeed, those are crafty lawyers who have taken away your right to a trial with a jury of your peers. Legal or not, it sure looks to be in poor form and very anti-consumer.