Roblox Arbitration Clause Opposition
The dispute centers on the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), a federal law signed in 2022 that allows sexual assault and harassment survivors to reject certain pre-dispute arbitration agreements and pursue their claims in court.
In November, California Superior Court Judge Nina Shapirshteyn ruled that a Roblox lawsuit filed on behalf of a 13-year-old boy fell within the protections of the EFAA. As a result, she determined Roblox and Discord could not use arbitration provisions in their Terms of Service to force the case out of court.
Roblox and Discord appealed that ruling, asking the California Court of Appeal to reverse the decision.
Arbitration clauses are commonly included in consumer contracts and Terms of Service, requiring disputes to be resolved privately rather than before a judge or jury. Critics of forced arbitration argue that the process can favor corporations and prevent serious allegations from being litigated publicly.
“Congress understood that arbitration clauses all too often barred survivors from enforcing their rights under state and federal laws. Instead, the use of arbitration incentivized companies to protect offenders; in the context of sexual assault and harassment, arbitration clauses enabled corporate misconduct that in turn fostered even more abuse and it prevented survivors from sharing their experiences and warning others about dangerous companies and repeat offenders.”
– Amicus Brief by Senators Blumenthal, Durbin and Gillibrand
The three senators urged the appeals court to uphold the lower court’s ruling, arguing that these are precisely the types of sexual abuse claims Congress intended to protect from forced arbitration. They maintain the EFAA was passed in response to concerns that survivors were being denied access to public courts before a dispute ever arose.
Roblox Child Sex Exploitation Lawsuits
The debate comes as nearly 200 Roblox child sex exploitation lawsuits have been filed in federal courts nationwide. They are currently centralized in the Northern District of California as part of a multidistrict litigation (MDL) under U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg, who is overseeing coordinated discovery and other pretrial proceedings.
The judge is expected to order the creation of a bellwether trial program for the litigation, which would lead to attorneys selecting a series of representative cases that are most reflective of the claims as a whole. These cases would then go through additional discovery and be the first federal Roblox lawsuits to go before a jury.
While the outcomes of these bellwether trials would not be binding on other claims, the results could assist the parties in reaching a Roblox lawsuit settlement agreement. However, if the bellwether process and settlement negotiations fail to resolve the litigation, Judge Seeborg may eventually begin returning individual lawsuits to the federal courts where they were originally filed for separate trial dates.
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