from Hacker News

Opt Out of Hulu's New Binding Arbitration Clause

by wilkystyle on 2/2/24, 12:11 AM with 15 comments

  • by papichulo4 on 2/2/24, 3:05 AM

    Now we just need a SaaS one-click page that can send that physical letter in our names. I'm not even a Hulu subscriber but I'll pay $5 per letter to be wholesomely maliciously compliant. What's needed to make this happen? Let's get the right people in a room, train a model, IPO in 2025. Letters.ai is for sale for $2M. Who's with me?

  • by eadler on 2/2/24, 2:59 AM

    In case anyone is interested I've been compiling as much factual information on arbitration here. Not yet complete but reasonably useful and well sourced. I've posted this here before, but now it has a new website: https://arbitrationinformation.org/docs/problems/

  • by kstrauser on 2/2/24, 4:26 AM

    Hey, that's me! I've opted out of such things before, but it usually involves sending an email or clicking a web form. This is the first time I remember having to put a dead tree letter in the mail.

    It went out in the post today.

  • by mynameisnoone on 2/2/24, 7:12 AM

    This is effectively a Hobson's choice buried in the benignly malicious obfuscation of a EULA. "a. Complete this painful process to achieve a simple task; b. agree to what favors us and harms you; or c. don't use the service."

    It's interesting that the opt-out instructions fail to explicitly mention a Hulu account, only a Disney+ or ESPN+ account.

    Note that opting out of binding arbitration and the class-action waiver are two different choices that must be both stated explicitly.

  • by siegel on 2/5/24, 1:19 AM

    Over the past few years, mass arbitrations have become an imperfect way for consumers to get relief where there is an arbitration provision with a class action waiver.

    Unfortunately, you'll see in the Hulu agreement (as well as in other standard user agreements, e.g. DoorDash), that companies (and their lawyers) have gotten creative in figuring out ways to avoid even mass arbitrations.

    In the case of Hulu, you cannot even file an arbitration until you: (1) send a written notice of dispute; and (2) have an individual one-on-one call or teleconference. You can hire a lawyer, but you have to personally participate in the teleconference.

    What is the point of this? The CEO of Hulu doesn't have to participate. They'll just send some rando in-house counsel or paralegal. The only purpose here is to make it as painful as possible to file a claim.

  • by Ekaros on 2/2/24, 6:28 AM

    I still don't understand how companies are not needed to send registered mail for these changes? Isn't same expectations only fair on both sides?