Class Action Denied, Arbitration Contracts Upheld Again

The Supreme Court has ruled that plaintiffs cannot mount an antitrust class action against American Express and must instead pursue their case individually through arbitration. The case, American Express Company v. Italian Colors Restaurant, was mounted largely by merchants and restaurants who balked at American Express credit card and charge card contract terms, which they considered onerous. Justice Scalia, who wrote the opinion, acknowledged a case might be too expensive to pursue for a single plaintiff, while Justice Kagan, in a dissent, faintly praised that line of thought for its frankness as she rendered it in her own paraphrase: “too darn bad.”