Ross, et al. v. Bank of America, N.A., (USA), No. 05-cv-7116 (S.D.N.Y.)
This lawsuit (called Ross, et al. v. Bank of America, N.A., et al., (USA), No. 05-cv-7116 (S.D.N.Y.)) claims that the settling defendants Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, HSBC and National Arbitration Forum, Inc. and the non-settling defendants Citibank and Discover violated federal law by conspiring, with each other and certain non-defendants, to require that their cardholders (a) take all legal disputes to arbitration rather than court and (b) give up any right to participate in class actions against the above six credit card companies. This case is on behalf of cardholders who are subject to arbitration clauses. Cardholders who are not subject to arbitration clauses, including any Discover cardholders who have opted out of arbitration, are not included in the case.
On July 26, 2010, the Court entered Final Judgment for settlements reached with Bank of America, Capital One, Chase and HSBC. On December 13, 2011, the Court preliminarily approved a settlement reached with the National Arbitration Forum, Inc. The case is still pending against defendants Citibank and Discover.
Arbitration is a type of dispute resolution, where the parties agree that private arbitrators, rather than judges in court, will decide their disputes. Class actions are a type of court proceeding where representative individuals, who must be approved by the court, bring a lawsuit on behalf of a class of similarly situated people or businesses.
This lawsuit alleges that defendants colluded with each other to adopt and invoke arbitration clauses to prevent consumers from enforcing their rights under state and federal law, both individually and in class actions. This lawsuit seeks to change the defendants' conduct with respect to arbitration clauses and class action bans. This lawsuit never sought money damages for cardholders. This lawsuit also seeks plaintiffs' attorneys' fees and reimbursement of their litigation expenses.
All settling defendants and all non-settling defendants deny that they conspired with each other or that they violated any law, and assert that they have done nothing wrong or improper.
For more detailed information about the plaintiffs' claims, please review the First Amended Complaint.
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