What exactly is mass arbitration?

Mass arbitration is a coordinated tactic in which hundreds or thousands of individual consumer or employee arbitration demands are filed at once by a law firm against a single company, obligating that company—under the Federal Arbitration Act and forum rules—to advance per-case filing fees that can quickly reach eight figures.

Why did it emerge?

• Class-action waivers. The Supreme Court upheld such waivers in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion (2011) and Epic Systems v. Lewis (2018), prompting businesses to bar class suits while compelling individual arbitration.
• Asymmetric cost structure. AAA’s 2024 Consumer Mass-Arbitration Fee Schedule requires the business to pay a flat batch fee plus $325 per claim, while each consumer pays at most $125. adr.orggo.adr.org
• Plaintiff-side innovation. Claimant firms realized that filing en masse reverses the cost pressure onto the clause drafter
• Judicial endorsement. Because courts now routinely compel individual arbitration, bulk filings became the only practical counterweight.

How do lawyers find claimnants?

1. Recruit claimants via advertising such as social media and advocacy networks.
2. Use automated intake and e-signatures to gather facts.
3. Generate near-identical demands following AAA or JAMS templates.
4. File them electronically in one burst; the provider invoices the respondent.
5. If the firm refuses to pay, move in federal court to compel arbitration and fees.

How the mass arbitration process works?

Step	Pre-2024 AAA Consumer Rules	2024 Mass-Arbitration Rules
Registration	Separate docket & invoice per claimant	Claims may be batched; a “Process Arbitrator” can be appointed (Rule MC-1).
Administrative fee	Consumer ≤ $200; business pays the rest	Flat initiation fee plus sliding-scale per-case fees.
Appointment	Arbitrator within 30 days	Bellwether tracks and global mediation optional.

So for example doing some math, a 50,000 claim filing leaves a company facing > $10 million right off the bat.

How are companies responding?

• Attempt stay/dismiss motions. DoorDash, Postmates, Samsung and others call the tactic abusive.
• Reversal. After more thab 75,000 demands, Amazon dropped self-imposed arbitration clauses in 2021
• Fee-shifting & small-claims clauses. Some contracts now require cost-sharing or a small-claims first step.
• Batch-processing protocols. Respondents negotiate phased payments and bellwethers with AAA/JAMS.

Benefits & risks for claimants

Benefits – Immediate cost leverage encourages settlement; each claimant keeps individual statutory remedies; publicity sparks debate.
Risks – Large discovery workload; confidentiality obscures wrongdoing; courts can shift fees back for bad-faith conduct.

Examples of mass arbitration cases

1. DoorDash (2020) – 31,000 couriers; ≈ $100 M settlement after $9.5 M in filing fees.
2. Amazon (2021) – 75,000 Alexa users; Amazon removed its arbitration clause. natlawreview.com
3. Intuit/TurboTax (2022) – ≈ 125000 users; extensive settlement talks followed fee disputes. kellerpostman.com
4. Samsung (7th Cir. 2024) – ≈ 50,000 biometric claims; appellate court said Samsung need not pay AAA fees. classdefenseblog.com
5. Live Nation/Ticketmaster (9th Cir. 2024) – Thousands of ticket-fee claims; Ninth Circuit voided “New Era ADR” protocol; Supreme Court petition pending. cdn.ca9.uscourts.govreuters.com (note that this is different than the 2024 Ticketmaster data breach lawsuit)

Policy debates

• Regulatory gap – FAA (1925) never envisioned mass filings.
• Due-process balance – Mass arbitration recreates class dynamics without Rule 23 safeguards.
• Transparency – Confidential awards hinder precedent and deterrence.
• Provider governance – More filings mean more revenue for AAA/JAMS, raising neutrality concerns.

Mass arbitration vs. class action

Feature	Class action	Mass arbitration
Forum	Court	Private provider
Opt-in/out	Usually opt-out	Pure opt-in
Up-front defence cost	Low until certification	High per filing
Discovery	Broad, judge-controlled	Limited, arbitrator-controlled
Precedent	Public rulings	Confidential awards
Settlement oversight	Court approval	Private, no judicial review