Mass Arbitration
Hundreds or thousands of individually filed, legally identical arbitration demands brought against one respondent at once.
Mass arbitration is the coordinated filing of large volumes of individual arbitration demands — often dozens, hundreds, or tens of thousands — against a single corporate respondent, by claimants represented by the same or coordinated counsel. Each demand is formally individual, satisfying the class-action waiver the respondent drafted. The aggregate effect is not individual at all: administrative and filing fees accrue per claimant and fall disproportionately on the respondent, generating settlement pressure before any arbitrator reads a single claim. Commentators describe the resulting inversion as an arbitration clause designed as a shield against class actions becoming a sword.
See also
- Class Action WaiverA term barring claimants from proceeding on a class, collective, or representative basis.
- BatchingA contractual mechanism releasing mass demands in fixed tranches rather than all at once.
- Filing FeeThe fee payable to a provider to commence an arbitration.
- Coordinated CounselThe same firm, or firms acting in concert, representing the claimant population in a mass filing.
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