On the recordJuly 25, 2017
Which is more fraudulent? On the one hand, we have Wells Fargo, 3 million phony accounts, and then they use their forced arbitration provision to tell people that if you signed up for a legitimate account and there was some language in there that created arbitration, that it even applies to the phony accounts. Well, what is even more fraudulent? The supporters of this bill who say that the rule deprives people of the option of arbitration. It hardly does that. It simply prohibits forced arbitration. But more important are the numbers. Arbitration is typically used by someone with a $50,000 claim. Class action lawsuits, it is 50,000 people with a $32 claim. So then they say: Well, arbitration provides more. Of course it provides more. Because the average person in the pool has got a $50,000 claim, and class action only produces $32 because it is designed for a situation where you have a million plaintiffs or a half a million plaintiffs each with a $32 claim. You cannot compare the two except to say that arbitration is unavailable to anyone with a claim of less than $1,000.
