Discussion
> Shake Shack wants you to shit yourself to death
https://pluralistic.net/2025/10/27/shit-shack/#binding-arbitration by @pluralistic
Not just Shake Shack. This is on the trend of companies, including #FastFood, to force app users into arbitration if shit happens, depriving you of your rights to seek redress in courts. It is #corruption and #fuckery pure and simple.
@bloodravenlib @pluralistic
If you want a model for legislation that makes this illegal, the UK has the Consumer Rights Act 2015 (see Schedule 2, part 1, para 20 for specific provisions against mandatory arbitration). Most European countries have similar provisions.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/schedule/2
@HighlandLawyer @bloodravenlib @pluralistic
In France, such clauses are nicknamed "leonine clauses" and could be illegal.
@tanavit @HighlandLawyer @bloodravenlib @pluralistic
Similarly, in the US, we have "contracts of adhesion." I'm hopeful these mandatory arbitration clauses will be found invalid eventually.
To qualify as a contract of adhesion:
(1) more powerful party determines the terms
(2) terms cannot be avoided by parties with less power (e.g., consumers cannot avoid mandatory arbitration if they want a CREDIT CARD)
(3) the process itself or the terms are unconscionable (i.e., contrary to good conscience; only agreed to because the weaker party had no option but to accept the terms if they wanted the product or service)
⭐ You'll often see a special carve-out for arbitration clauses ("if this clause is held unenforceable the rest of the agreement is still enforceable").
They do this because they know it is only a matter of time . . . !
@tanavit @HighlandLawyer @bloodravenlib @pluralistic that's because in France people strike and take the street. Nothing else keeps our foul corporate offsprings' fingers off our throats.
@celeduc @tanavit @HighlandLawyer @bloodravenlib @pluralistic
Liberty, equality and freedom are inseparable.
They are only reliably defended by the rank and file of society jealously guarding their economic and political decision-making power.
The government *can* do it, but we cannot rely on it doing so. Oligarchs will relentlessly seek to capture it.
This is the eternal arc of history.
@celeduc @tanavit @HighlandLawyer @bloodravenlib @pluralistic
On a related note. "fair share of taxes" is weak framing. Wealth inequality *is* oligarchy. It *is* the loss of our decision-making power.
Every egalitarian society has a moral system that denounces greed/avarice/usury for a reason. These are prophylactic measures against subjugation.
Anti-enshittification is in our genes. It's what separates us from chimps with their bully social hierarchy.
(gets off of soap box)
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @celeduc @tanavit @bloodravenlib @pluralistic
"The men who wield effective control within these giants exercise a power over their fellow men which is frightening and is a negation of democracy.
Government by the people for the people becomes meaningless unless it includes major economic decision making... This is not simply an economic matter. In essence it ipso facto determines the social priorities of that society"
~ Jimmy Reid, 1972
https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_167194_smxx.pdf
@GhostOnTheHalfShell @celeduc @tanavit @bloodravenlib @pluralistic
"The men who wield effective control within these giants exercise a power over their fellow men which is frightening and is a negation of democracy.
Government by the people for the people becomes meaningless unless it includes major economic decision making... This is not simply an economic matter. In essence it ipso facto determines the social priorities of that society"
~ Jimmy Reid, 1972
https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_167194_smxx.pdf
A quick note: #arbitration was created to help manage large, complex, commercial issues between parties of _like power_ (e.g. GiantCorpA vs GiantCorpB).
Now it is used by megacorps to take away consumer rights (e.g. GiantCorpA-through-Z vs individual consumer).
Just something to keep in mind when **all of this** is over and we are re-building.
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