Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 1 of 31

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
-------------------------------------x
SPENCER MEYER, individually and on
behalf of those similarly situated,
15 Civ.

9796

Plaintiff,
OPINION AND ORDER
-vTRAVIS KALANICK and
UBER TECHNOLOGIES, INC.,

-----

..., ....

': ----------

JED S. RAKOFF, U.S.D.J.

Since the late eighteenth century, the Constitution of the
United States and the constitutions or laws of the several
states have guaranteed U.S. citizens the right to a jury trial.
This most precious and fundamental right can be waived only if
the waiver is knowing and voluntary, with the courts
"indulg[ing] every reasonable presumption against waiver." Aetna
Ins. Co. v. Kennedy to Use of Bogash,
Merrill Lynch & Co.
171, 188

301 U.S.

Inc. v. Allegheny Energy,

389,
Inc.,

393

(1937);

500 F.3d

(2d Cir. 2007). But in the world of the Internet,

ordinary consumers are deemed to have regularly waived this

right,

and,

indeed, to have given up their access to the courts

altogether, because they supposedly agreed to lengthy "terms and

conditions" that they had no realistic power to negotiate or
contest and often were not even aware of.

Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 2 of 31

This legal fiction is sometimes justified, at least where

mandatory arbitration is concerned, by reference to the "liberal
federal policy favoring arbitration," AT&T Mobility LLC v.
Concepcion,

563 U.S.

333,

339

(2011)

(internal quotation marks

omitted). Application of this policy to the Internet is said to

inhere in the Federal Arbitration Act,

as if the Congress that

enacted that Act in 1925 remotely contemplated the vicissitudes

of the World Wide Web. Nevertheless,

in this brave new world,

consumers are routinely forced to waive their constitutional

right to a jury and their very access to courts, and to submit
instead to arbitration, on the theory that they have voluntarily
agreed to do so in response to endless, turgid,

often

impenetrable sets of terms and conditions, to which, by pressing

a button, they have indicated their agreement.
But what about situations where the consumer is not even
asked to affirmatively indicate her consent? What about
situations in which the consumer, by the mere act of accessing a
service,

is allegedly consenting to an entire lengthy set of

terms and conditions? And what about the situation where the
only indication to the consumer that she is so consenting
appears in print so small that an ordinary consumer,

if she

could read it at all, would hardly notice it? Writing for the
Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 2002, then-Circuit Judge
Sonia Sotomayor presciently held that "[r]easonably conspicuous
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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 3 of 31

notice of the existence of contract terms and unambiguous

manifestation of assent to those terms by consumers are
essential if electronic bargaining is to have integrity and
credibility." Specht v. Netscape Communications Corp.,
17, 35

306 F.3d

(2002). Applying these principles to the matter at hand,

the Court finds that the plaintiff here never agreed to waive
his right to a jury trial or to submit to mandatory arbitration.
The background of this case is set forth in prior written
decisions of this Court,

familiarity with which is here assumed.

See Opinion and Order dated March 31,

2016,

Dkt.

37; Opinion and

Order dated May 7, 2016, Dkt. 44; Memorandum Order dated June
19, 2016, Dkt.

90. By way of brief background, on December 16,

2015, plaintiff Spencer Meyer filed suit against defendant

Travis Kalanick,

alleging that Mr. Kalanick had orchestrated and

participated in an antitrust conspiracy arising from the

algorithm that co-defendant Uber Technologies,
uses to set ride prices. See Complaint,
not,

Inc.

("Uber")

Dkt. 1. Mr. Kalanick did

at that time, make any motion to compel arbitration.

Instead, he filed a motion to dismiss plaintiff's First Amended

Complaint, which was denied on March 31,

2016, as well as a

motion to reconsider the Court's determination that plaintiff

could seek to proceed via class action, which was denied on May
9, 2016. See Opinion and Order dated March 31, 2016; Opinion and
Order dated May 7, 2016. Following these Court rulings, Mr.
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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 4 of 31

Kalanick,
this case,

on May 20,

2016, moved to join Uber as a defendant in

see Notice of Motion for Joinder,

Dkt.

46,

and that

motion was granted. See Memorandum Order dated June 19, 2016,
Dkt.

90.
Uber had also moved to intervene,

Intervene,

Dkt.

was granted,

58, and,

see Notice of Motion to

once Mr. Kalanick's motion to join Uber

Uber's motion to intervene was denied as moot.

See

Memorandum Order dated June 19, 2016. But attached to Uber's

motion to intervene was a motion to compel arbitration. See
Proposed Intervenor Uber Technologies,

Inc.'s Memorandum of Law

in Support of Motion to Compel Arbitration,

Dkt.

59-2. Uber

argued that Mr. Meyer was required to arbitrate his claims

pursuant to a contract formed when he signed up to use Uber. See
id. at 1. On June 7,

2016, defendant Kalanick also moved to

compel arbitration. See Memorandum of Law in Support of

Defendant Travis Kalanick's Motion to Compel Arbitration
("Kalanick Br."),

Dkt.

81. Mr. Kalanick claimed that even though

he was not a signatory to the contract that plaintiff had formed

with Uber,

he could enforce the arbitration provision of that

contract against plaintiff.

as a defendant,

See id. at 1. After Uber was joined

it re-filed its motion to compel arbitration.

See Uber Technologies,

Inc.'s Memorandum of Law in Support of

Motion to Compel Arbitration

("Uber Br."),

Dkt.

92.

Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 5 of 31

As the motions to compel arbitration were then ripe, the

Court ordered full briefing. By papers filed on June 29, 2016,
plaintiff opposed the motions to compel arbitration filed by
defendants Kalanick and Uber. See Memorandum of Law in
Opposition to Defendants' Motion to Compel Arbitration ("Pl.
Opp. Br."), Dkt. 102. On July 7, 2016, Mr. Kalanick and Uber
filed separate replies to plaintiff's opposition. See Reply
Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendant Travis Kalanick's
Motion to Compel Arbitration ("Kalanick Reply Br."),
Uber Technologies,

Dkt. 110;

Inc.'s Reply in Support of Motion to Compel

Arbitration ("Uber Reply Br."), Dkt. 113. Thereafter, on July

14, 2016, the Court held oral argument. See Transcript dated
July 14, 2016 ("Tr."),

Dkt. 124.

Having now carefully considered all these submissions and

arguments, the Court hereby denies the motions to compel
arbitration filed by Uber and by Mr. Kalanick.
noted at the outset that the parties'
of important but subsidiary questions,

It should be

submissions raise a number

such as,

for example,

whether Mr. Kalanick is permitted to enforce an alleged

arbitration agreement to which he is not a signatory and whether
Mr. Kalanick and/or Uber have waived any right to compel
arbitration through their prior statements and participation in
litigation in this Court. At this juncture, however, the Court
need not decide these questions, since it finds that the motions
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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 6 of 31

are resolved by the threshold question of whether plaintiff

actually formed any agreement to arbitrate with Uber, let alone
with Mr. Kalanick.
Plaintiff denies that such an agreement was ever formed,

on

the ground that when he registered to use Uber, he did not have
adequate notice of the existence of an arbitration agreement.
See Pl. Opp. Br. at 10-14. The question of whether an
arbitration agreement existed is for the Court and not an
arbitrator to decide, as Uber acknowledged at oral argument. See
Tr. 75:2-10; see also Republic of Ecuador v. Chevron Corp.,
F.3d 384, 392

638

(2d Cir. 2011); Celltrace Communs. Ltd. v. Acacia

Research Corp., 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 78620,

*5-6 (S.D.N.Y. June

16, 2016).
The parties argue, however, over which state's law should
be applied to the issue of whether plaintiff agreed to arbitrate
his claims. The Court previously indicated that California law
would apply to the User Agreement between Uber and its riders the agreement that contains the arbitration clause and to
which plaintiff is alleged to have assented.

See Opinion dated

May 7, 2016, at 5-6. Plaintiff supports the application of

California law,

see Pl. Opp. Br. at 25-27, and in fact,

1 Defendants Kalanick and Uber refer to this agreement as Uber's "Rider

Terms." The Court refers to the agreement as the "User Agreement" for the
sake of consistency with the Court's previous rulings, but no substantive
point depends on this terminological choice.

Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 7 of 31

defendant Kalanick expressly stated in previous briefing in this

case that California law applied. See Defendant's Memorandum of
Law in Support of Defendant Travis Kalanick's Motion to Dismiss,
Dkt. 28,

at 23

("In this case,

the relevant contract law is the

law of California."); see also Memorandum of Law in Support of

Defendant Travis Kalanick's Motion for Reconsideration of the
Court's Holding Regarding Plaintiff's Class Action Waiver,
41, at 7 n.3

Dkt.

("Given the facts pled in the Complaint, California

law would appear to apply given Uber's connections to

California; the only other alternative is New York."). Yet Mr.
Kalanick and Uber now contend that New York law should apply to
the User Agreement,

citing "evidence now available" concerning

Uber rides that plaintiff Meyer has taken.

See Kalanick Br. at

15-17; Uber Br. at 12-13.

Although the Court does not view the choice between
California law and New York law as dispositive with respect to
the issue of whether an arbitration agreement was formed,

the

Court confirms its prior decision to apply California law to the

User Agreement. To reach this result,
(and again employs)

the Court first employed

New York's "interest analysis" for deciding

which state law to apply in these circumstances. According to

that analysis,

a court "must consider five factors:

place of contracting;
negotiations;

(3)

(2)

(1)

the

the place of the contract

the place of the performance of the contract;

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 8 of 31

(4) the location of the subject matter of the contract; and (5)
the domicile,

residence, nationality, places of incorporation,

and places of business of the parties." Philips Credit Corp. v.

Regent Health Grp.,

Inc.,

953 F. Supp. 482,

502

(S.D.N.Y. 1997).

Here, the fact that Uber - one of the parties to the

alleged contract, and the contract's drafter - is located in
California weighs heavily in favor of the application of
California law. Consistent with this finding is the fact that
although Uber's May 17, 2013 User Agreement
plaintiff is alleged to have assented)

(the one to which

contains no explicit

choice-of-law clause, that agreement indicates that the

arbitrator referenced in the agreement's arbitration provision
"will be either a retired judge or an attorney licensed to
practice law in the state of California," see User Agreement,
Dkt. 29-1, at 8. Moreover, later versions of the User Agreement
contain an explicit California choice-of-law clause. See
Declaration of Jeffrey A. Wadsworth ("Wadsworth Deel."), Exhibit
1, Dkt. 101-1, at UBER-00000221; Wadsworth Deel., Exhibit 2,
Dkt. 101-2, at UBER-00000233.
The other interest analysis factors do not favor any other
state's law more strongly than that of California. According to
the uncontested representation of Uber's Senior Software
Engineer Vincent Mi, the plaintiff has taken three Uber rides in
New York City; one in Connecticut; three in Washington,
8

D.C.;

Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 9 of 31

and three in Paris. See Uber Br., Exhibit 1, Dkt. 92-1

Deel."),

4.

("Mi

Plaintiff Meyer lives in Connecticut, see First

Amended Complaint,

Dkt. 26,

7, and he recalls being in Vermont

when he registered to use Uber.

("Meyer Deel."),

Dkt. 100,

case, or any others,

See Declaration of Spencer Meyer

2. None of these features of the

supports the choice of New York law over

California law. Accordingly, the Court reaffirms its prior

holding that California law applies to the User Agreement.
Turning, then,

to the question of whether plaintiff agreed

to arbitrate his claims, defendants first argue that plaintiff

conceded that he had so agreed through a statement made in his
Amended Complaint. See Kalanick Br. at 7; Uber Br. at 8.
Specifically, plaintiff stated in his Amended Complaint that
"[t]o become an Uber account holder,

an individual first must

agree to Uber's terms and conditions and privacy policy."

Amended Complaint,

29. But defendants read this statement out

of context, as the statement does not specifically reference the

plaintiff. And plaintiff's counsel clarified at oral argument
that the statement was not intended as some kind of implicit
waiver, and that,

if required, he could amend the complaint to

so clarify. See Tr.

92:1-25. The Federal Rules of Civil

Nevertheless, as indicated above, the Court does not see the choice between
California law and New York law as dispositive with regard to the issue of
whether plaintiff formed an agreement to arbitrate. Even if the Court were to
apply New York law, it would hold that plaintiff had not formed such an
agreement.

Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 10 of 31

Procedure provide that "[t]he court should freely give leave [to
amend a pleading] when justice so requires," Fed. R. Civ. P.
15(a) (2), and so,

for instant purposes, the Court will deem the

complaint so amended. Moreover, even without the amendment, the

Court does not construe this one sentence of the complaint as
somehow a knowing and voluntary waiver of the right to argue
that Mr. Meyer was never adequately notified of the alleged
agreement to arbitrate.

The Court therefore turns to the heart of plaintiff's

argument that he did not agree to arbitrate his claims. As
previously indicated, guidance from the Court of Appeals was
provided in Specht v. Netscape Commc'ns Corp.,

306 F.3d 17

(2d

Cir. 2002), and that decision is particularly apt because it

applied California law. Applying that law, the Specht court
found that certain plaintiffs had not assented to a license
agreement containing a mandatory arbitration clause because
adequate notice and assent were not present on the facts of that
case. See id. at 24,

32, 35.

In the instant case, the essentially undisputed facts

relevant to the issue of whether plaintiff assented to the
arbitration agreement are as follows. According to a declaration
submitted by Uber engineer Mi, plaintiff Meyer registered for

3 The same is even more true of a passing remark plaintiff's counsel made at
oral argument in one of the hearings before the Court on another issue. See
Transcript dated June 16, 2016, Dkt. 94, at 15:14-15.

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 11 of 31

Uber on October 18, 2014 via the Uber smartphone application

(the "Uber app")

using a Samsung Galaxy SS phone with an Android

operating system. See Mi Deel.

3. At the time that Mr. Meyer

registered to use Uber, Uber rider registration using a

smartphone involved a two-step process. See Mi Deel.,

S; Uber

Br. at 14. At the first screen, potential Uber riders were

prompted either to register using Google+ or Facebook, or to
enter their name, email address, phone number, and password and
click "Next." See Mi Deel., Exhibit A,

Dkt.

92-2, at 001.

Potential riders who clicked "Next" at the first screen were

directed to a second screen, where they could make payment and
register to use Uber. See Mi Deel., Exhibit A, at 002. Uber has
provided an image of this second screen - the crucial one for
the purposes of determining plaintiff's assent to the
arbitration agreement - that is considerably larger than the
screen that would be faced by the user of a Samsung Galaxy SS
phone. Therefore, the Court attaches to this opinion an image of
the second screen scaled down to reflect the size of such a
phone (with a S.l" or 129.4 mm display size)

The second screen of the Uber registration process

features,

at the top of the screen,

fields for users to insert

See Tech Specs, Samsung Galaxy SS,

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/mobile-devices/smartphones/galaxy-s/SMG900FZKABTU.

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their credit card details. See Mi Deel., Exhibit A, at 002.

Beneath these fields is a large, prominent button whose width
spans most of the screen; it is labeled "Register." See id.
Beneath this button are two additional buttons, with heights
similar to that of the "Register" button,

labeled "PayPal" and

"Google Wallet." See id. These buttons indicate that a user may
make payments using PayPal or Google Wallet instead of entering
his or her credit card information. See id.; Uber Br. at 4; Pl.
Opp. Br. at 3.
Beneath these two additional buttons,
smaller font,

in considerably

are the words "By creating an Uber account, you

agree to the Terms of Service & Privacy Policy." See Mi Deel.,

Exhibit A, at 002. While the phrase "Terms of Service & Privacy
Policy" is in all-caps, the key words "By creating an Uber
account,

you agree to" are not in any way highlighted and,

indeed, are barely legible.s

Although the fact that the phrase "Terms of Service &
Privacy Policy" is underlined and in blue suggests that the
phrase is a hyperlink,

see Uber Br. at 4; Mi Deel.

S(b), a

potential user may click on the "Register" button and complete

the Uber registration process without clicking on this

In the Court's reckoning, the word "Register" is in approximately 10-point

font, the phrase "Terms of Service & Privacy Policy" is in approximately 6point font, and the words "By creating an Uber account, you agree to" may be
in even smaller font and certainly no greater than 6-point font.
5

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 13 of 31

hyperlink. See Pl. Opp. Br. at 12. Even if a potential user does
click on the hyperlink,

she is not immediately taken to the

actual terms and conditions. Rather,

engineer Mi,

"the user is taken to a screen that contains a

button that accesses the

'Terms and Conditions'

Policy' then in effect." Mi Deel.

5.

Thus,

in the words of Uber

and 'Privacy

S(b); see also Uber Br. at

it is only by clicking first the hyperlink and then the

button - neither of which is remotely required to register with

Uber and begin accessing its services - that a user can even
access the Terms and Conditions.
Further still, even if a user were to arrive at the Terms
and Conditions, these terms
Agreement")

(which the Court calls the "User

consist of nine pages of highly legalistic language

that no ordinary consumer could be expected to understand. And

it is only on the very bottom of the seventh page that one
finally reaches the following provision:
Dispute Resolution

You and Company agree that any dispute,

claim or
controversy arising out of or relating to this Agreement
or the breach, termination, enforcement, interpretation
or validity thereof or the use of the Service or
Application (collectively, "Disputes") will be settled
6 In fact,
unlike a declaration that Uber submitted in another recent case,
Mr. Mi's declaration does not attest that "[t]he Terms & Conditions then in
effect would be displayed when the 'Terms & Conditions' button was clicked.u
Declaration of Paul Holden, Cullinane v. Uber Techs., Inc., No. 14-cv-14750,
2016 WL 3751652 (D. Mass. July 11, 2016) (Dkt. 32-1); see also Resorb
Networks, Inc. v. YouNow.com, 30 N.Y.S.3d 506 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 2016). (Docket
numbers in parentheticals refer to docket entries in other cases, usually
containing screenshots of websites or other interfaces referenced in other
court decisions.)

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 14 of 31

by binding arbitration, except that each party retains

the right to bring an individual action in small claims
court and the right to seek injunctive or other equitable
relief in a court of competent jurisdiction to prevent
the actual or threatened infringement, misappropriation
or violation of a party's copyrights, trademarks, trade
secrets, patents or other intellectual property rights.
You acknowledge and agree that you and Company are each
waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate
as a plaintiff or class User in any purported class
action or representative proceeding. Further, unless

both you and Company otherwise agree in writing, the

arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person's
claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of
any class or representative proceeding. If this specific
paragraph is held unenforceable, then the entirety of
this "Dispute Resolution" section will be deemed void.
Except as provided in the preceding sentence, this
"Dispute
Resolution"
section
will
survive
any
termination of this Agreement.
User Agreement at 7-8

(boldface in the original). The bolded

sentence in the middle of this paragraph is the only bolded

sentence in the User Agreement that is not part of a header,
although other statements in the User Agreement are in all-caps.
See, e.g.,

id. at 6 ("Limitation of Liability").

Plaintiff Meyer states that he does not recall noticing the

Terms of Service hyperlink when he registered to use Uber and
does not believe that he clicked on the hyperlink. See Meyer
Deel.,

3. Uber does not contest this statement, and the Court

finds no basis for a claim that plaintiff Meyer had "actual

knowledge of the agreement." Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble Inc., 763
F.3d 1171, 1177

(9th Cir. 2014)

(applying New York law).

However, an individual may still be said to have assented to an

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 15 of 31

electronic agreement if "a reasonably prudent user" would have

been put "on inquiry notice of the terms of the contract."
Barnes & Noble,

763 F.3d at 1177; see also Schnabel v.

Trilegiant Corp.,
F.3d at 20.

697 F. 3d 110, 120

(2d Cir. 2012); Specht,

306

Courts addressing electronic contract formation have at

times distinguished between two types of agreements:
"'clickwrap'

(or 'click-through') agreements,

in which website

users are required to click on an 'I agree' box after being

presented with a list of terms and conditions of use; and
'browsewrap' agreements, where a website's terms and conditions
of use are generally posted on the website via a hyperlink at
the bottom of the screen." Barnes & Noble,

763 F.3d at 1175-76.

"The defining feature of browsewrap agreements is that the user

can continue to use the website or its services without visiting
the page hosting the browsewrap agreement or even knowing that
such a webpage exists." Be In,
03373,
Long v.

2013 WL 5568706, at *6
Provide Commerce,

Ct. App. 2016)

Inc. v. Google Inc., No.

(N.D. Cal. Oct.

Inc., 200 Cal. Rptr.

9,

2013)

12-cvsee also

3d 117, 123

(Cal.

(internal quotation marks omitted).

Much of the case law on electronic bargaining relates to the context of

Internet transactions, while the alleged agreement in the instant case was
formed via mobile application. However, the Court sees little reason to
distinguish between the two contexts, and neither does existing case law.
See, e.g.,
2016 WL 3751652, at *6.
7

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"Clickwrap" agreements are more readily enforceable, since

they "permit courts to infer that the user was at least on
inquiry notice of the terms of the agreement, and has outwardly
manifested consent by clicking a box." Cullinane, 2016 WL
3751652, at *6; see also Specht, 306 F.3d at 22 n.4; Savetsky v.
Pre-Paid Legal Servs.,

Inc., 14-cv-03514, 2015 WL 604767, at *3

(N.D. Cal. Feb. 12, 2015); Berkson v. Gogo LLC,

97 F. Supp. 3d

359, 397

(E.D.N.Y. 2015); United States v.

Drew, 259 F.R.D. 449,

462 n.22

(C.D. Cal. 2009). "Browsewrap agreements are treated

differently under the law than 'clickwrap' agreements."

Schnabel,

697 F.3d at 129 n.18. Courts will generally enforce

browsewrap agreements only if they have ascertained that a user

"'had actual or constructive knowledge of the site's terms and
conditions, and
Cvent,

. manifested assent to them.'" Id.

Inc. v. Eventbrite,

Inc., 739 F. Supp. 2d 927,

(quoting
937

(E.D.

Va. 2010)). This is rarely the case for individual consumers. In

fact,

courts have stated that "the cases in which courts have

enforced browsewrap agreements have involved users who are

. consumers." Fjeta v.

businesses rather than, as in Specht

Facebook,

Inc.,

also Berkson,

841 F. Supp. 2d 829,

836

(S.D.N.Y. 2012); see

97 F. Supp. 3d at 396 ("Following the ruling in

Specht, courts generally have enforced browsewrap terms only

against knowledgeable accessors, such as corporations, not
against individuals."); Mark A. Lemley, Terms of Use,
16

91 Minn.

Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 17 of 31

L. Rev.

459,

472

(2006)

("An examination of the cases that have

considered browsewraps in the last five years demonstrates that

the courts have been willing to enforce terms of use against
corporations, but have not been willing to do so against
individuals.").
Here, the User Agreement to which plaintiff Meyer allegedly
assented was clearly not a clickwrap agreement. Mr. Meyer did
not need to affirmatively click any box saying that he agreed to
Uber's "Terms of Service." On the contrary, he could sign up for
Uber by clicking on the "Register" button without explicitly
indicating his assent to the terms and conditions that included
the arbitration provision. See Mi Deel., Exhibit A, at 002. As
with a browsewrap agreement, an Uber user could access Uber's
services "without visiting the page hosting the browsewrap
agreement or even knowing that such a webpage exists." Be In,
2013 WL 5568706, at *6.
Nevertheless, Uber's User Agreement differs from certain
browsewrap agreements in which "by visiting the website something that the user has already done - the user agrees to
the Terms of Use not listed on the site itself but available
only by clicking a hyperlink." Barnes & Noble,

763 F.3d at 1176

(internal quotation marks omitted); see also Fjeta, 841 F. Supp.

2d at 838

("Facebook's Terms of Use are somewhat like a

browsewrap agreement in that the terms are only visible via a

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 18 of 31

hyperlink, but also somewhat like a clickwrap agreement in that

the user must do something else - click 'Sign Up' - to assent to
the hyperlinked terms."). Uber's User Agreement might be
characterized as a "sign-in wrap," since a user is allegedly
"notified of the existence and applicability of the site's
'terms of use' when proceeding through the website's sign-in or
login process." Berkson,

97 F. Supp. 3d at 399; see also

Cullinane, 2016 WL 3751652, at *6. Sign-in wraps have been

described as "[a] questionable form of internet contracting."
Berkson,

97 F. Supp. 3d at 399. Here, as indicated, the

notification was in a font that was barely legible on the

smartphone device that a would-be Uber registrant could be
expected to use.
Of course, all these labels can take courts only so far.
The issue of whether plaintiff Meyer agreed to arbitrate his
claims "turns more on customary and established principles of
contract law than on newly-minted terms of classification."
Cullinane, 2016 WL 3751652, at *6. For while the Internet may
have reduced ever further a consumer's power to negotiate terms,
"it has not fundamentally changed the principles of contract."
Register.com,

Inc. v. Verio,

Inc.,

356 F.3d 393,

403

(2d Cir.

2004). One of these principles is that "[m]utual manifestation

of assent .

. is the touchstone of contract." Specht,

306 F.3d

at 29. Moreover, "[a]rbitration agreements are no exception to

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 19 of 31

the requirement of manifestation of assent," id. at 30, and

"[c]larity and conspicuousness of arbitration terms are
important in securing informed assent." Id. The Specht standard
provides a way for courts to ascertain whether this fundamental
principle of contract law has been vindicated, and it is this
standard - whether plaintiff Meyer had "[r]easonably conspicuous
notice of the existence of contract terms and unambiguous
manifestation of assent to those terms" - that the Court will
apply.

Id. at 35.

While every case is different, the Court has examined the

decisions of other courts that have considered issues of
electronic contract formation,

even where, as in many cases,

these decisions are not binding on this Court.

In numerous cases

in which electronic contracts were held to have been properly

formed,

notice of the existence of those contracts was more

conspicuous - in some cases, much more conspicuous - than in the

instant case, and indications of assent were much more express.
For example,
by Uber,

in Mohamed v. Uber Technologies,

Inc., a case cited

see Uber Reply Br. at 2 n.2, a court in the Northern

District of California concluded that a binding contract had

been formed between Uber drivers and Uber. See Mohamed v. Uber
Techs.,

Inc., 109 F. Supp. 3d 1185, 1197

(N.D. Cal. 2015).

There, Uber drivers could not access the Uber app without
clicking a button marked "Yes, I agree" beneath the phrase "By
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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 20 of 31

clicking below, you acknowledge that you agree to all the

contracts above," with those contracts hyperlinked above,
then clicking "Yes,

and

I agree" on a screen containing text stating

"Please confirm that you have reviewed all the documents and
agree to all the new contracts." Id. at 1190-91. In the instant
case, by contrast, plaintiff Meyer did not have to click any
button explicitly indicating assent to Uber's User Agreement,
and the hyperlink to Uber's "Terms of Service" was nowhere near
as prominent as in Mohamed.
In Cullinane v. Uber Techs.,
relies,

Inc., on which Uber also

a court held that Uber users had formed an agreement to

arbitrate their claims. See Cullinane,

2016 WL 3751652, at *7.

There, the applicable version of Uber's registration screen for

users,

like in the instant case and unlike in Mohamed, did not

require users to affirmatively click "I agree." See id.

32-2, 32-3). However,

( Dkts.

in the user interface that some of the

Cullinane plaintiffs faced,

the clickable box with the phrase

"Terms of Service & Privacy Policy" was clearly delineated, and

the words appeared in bold white lettering on a black
background,

in a size similar to,

if not larger than,

the size

of the "Done" button that users clicked in order to register.

See Cullinane, 2016 WL 3751652

(Dkts. 32-3, 32-5). In the

instant case, by contrast, the phrase "Terms of Service &

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 21 of 31

Privacy Policy" is much smaller and more obscure, both in

absolute terms and relative to the "Register" button.

A review of numerous other cases finding that an electronic

agreement was formed highlights the point that the Uber
registration process in plaintiff Meyer's case involved a
considerably more obscure presentation of the relevant
contractual terms.

Further, by contrast to the situation in

8 In fact,
in the user interface that other Cullinane plaintiffs faced, the
phrase "Terms of Use & Privacy Policy" was placed between the field in which
the user's credit card number would appear and the numbers that users would
tap in order to enter their credit card information - a clearly prominent
location. See Cullinane, 2016 WL 3751652 (Dkts. 32-2, 32-4).

e.g., Defillipis v. Dell Fin. Servs., 14-cv-115, 2016 WL 394003, at *3

(M.D. Pa. Jan. 29, 2016) ("an applicant had to affirmatively click a box
agreeing: 'I have read and agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms &
Conditions, which contain important account information.'"); Bassett v. Elec.
Arts, Inc., 93 F. Supp. 3d 95, 99 (E.D.N.Y. 2015) ("Plaintiff would have been
presented with four buttons, two of which are the links to the terms of
service and privacy policy, one which reads 'I Do Not Accept,' and one which
reads 'I Have Read And Accept Both Documents.'
. If the registrant .
does not click the button reading "I ... Accept .
. the registration
process stops and the online features cannot be activated."); Nicosia v.
Arnazon.com, Inc., 84 F. Supp. 3d 142, 150 (E.D.N.Y. 2015) (Dkt. 53-3) (the
statement "By placing your order, you agree to Amazon.corn's privacy notice
and conditions of use" appears directly under "Review your order" and higher
on the page than the button to click to "Place your order," so that "[t]o
place his orders, Plaintiff had to navigate past this screen by clicking a
square icon below and to the right of this disclaimer, which states: 'Place
your order.'"); Whitt v. Prosper Funding, LLC, 15-cv-136, 2015 WL 4254062, at
*1 (S.D.N.Y. July 14, 2015) (Dkt. 41-1) ("An applicant could not complete a
loan application without clicking the box indicating his or her acceptance of
the Agreement.''); Tompkins v. 23andMe, Inc., 13-cv-05682, 2014 WL 2903752, at
*3 (N.D. Cal. June 25, 2014) ("The account creation page requires customers
to check a box next to the line, 'Yes, I have read and agree to the Terms of
Service and Privacy Statement'
. Similarly, during the registration
process,
[c]ustomers must then click a large blue icon that reads 'I
ACCEPT THE TERMS OF SERVICE' before finishing the registration process");
Swift v. Zynga Game Network, Inc., 805 F. Supp. 2d 904, 911 (N.D. Cal. 2011)
("Plaintiff admits that she was required to and did click on an 'Accept'
button directly above a statement that clicking on the button served as
assent to the YoVille terms of service along with a blue hyperlink directly
to the terms of service."); Zaltz v. JDATE, 952 F. Supp. 2d 439, 453-54
(E.D.N.Y. 2013) ("defendant's reference to its Terms and Conditions of
Service appear above the button" that "a prospective user had to click in
order to assent"); 5831 Partners LLC v. Shareasale.com, 12-cv-4263, 2013 WL

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 22 of 31

Register.com,

356 F.3d 393 at 401-02, there is no evidence that

plaintiff Meyer repeatedly visited Uber's registration screen.

Rather,

10

Uber's interface here shares certain

characteristics in common with instances in which courts have

declined to hold that an electronic agreement was formed. Most
obviously, Uber riders need not click on any box stating "I
agree" in order to proceed to use the Uber app - a feature that
courts have repeatedly made note of in declining to find that an

5328324, at *7 & n.4 (E.D.N.Y. Sept 23, 2013) ("defendant's reference to its
Merchant Agreement appears adjacent to the activation button .
. in
determining that the forum selection clause was reasonably communicated to
plaintiff, [the Court] is solely relying on the second page of the sign up
process (in which a prospective merchant must click to activate its account
and is informed that 'By clicking and making a request to Activate, you agree
to the terms and conditions in the Merchant Agreement.'"); Vernon v. Qwest
Commc'ns Int'l, Inc., 925 F. Supp. 2d 1185, 1191 (D. Colo. 2013) ("At each
stage of the enrollment process the consumer was referred to the Subscriber
Agreement and, in some instances, specifically to the existence of an
arbitration clause."); Fjeta, 841 F. Supp. 2d (Dkt. 12 at 17) (the phrase "By
clicking Sign Up, you are indicating that you have read and agree to the
Terms of Policy" appeared directly below the button marked "Sign Up," and,
this Court finds, the symmetry between the "Sign Up" phrases would help to
catch the reader's eye); Guadagno v. E*Trade Bank, 592 F. Supp. 2d 1263,
1267, 1271 (C.D. Cal. 2008) (Dkt. 31-2) (users had to check a box
acknowledging that they had reviewed the Account Agreement); Feldman v.
Google, Inc., 513 F. Supp. 2d 229, 233, 237 (E.D. Pa. 2007) (Dkt. 16-2) (in
order to activate their accounts, users had to click a box stating "Yes, I
agree to the above terms and conditions" displayed in a scrollable text box);
Major v. Mccallister, 302 S.W.3d 227 (Mo. Ct. App. 2009) (the party seeking
to enforce the contract "did put 'immediately visible notice of the existence
of license terms' 'By submitting you agree to the Terms of Use' and a
blue hyperlink - right next to the button that Appellant pushed.").
In Register.com, the Second Circuit drew an analogy between an electronic
contract and an apple stand with a sign, visible only as one turns to exit,
naming the price of apples. The Second Circuit indicated that an individual
who eats an apple without paying might avoid contractual liability the first
time he did so, but he would not be able to do so if he thereafter visited
the stand and ate apples several times a day. See Register.com, 356 F.3d at
401-02. Other courts have since extended the Register.com analogy in
different directions, see Fteja, 841 F. Supp. 2d at 839; Cullinane, 2016 WL
3751652, at *7, but Register.com itself focuses on the repetition of the
activity of seeing the sign.

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 23 of 31

electronic contract was formed.

F.3d at 1176; Specht,
Legal Servs.,

See, e.g., Barnes & Noble, 763

306 F.3d at 22-23; Savetsky v.

Pre-Paid

Inc., 14-cv-03514, 2015 WL 604767, at *4

(N.D.

Cal. Feb. 12, 2015). Nor do the license terms in the instant
case appear on the screen in view of the user. See Motise v. Am.
Online,

Inc.,

346 F. Supp. 2d 563,

565

(S.D.N.Y. 2004). As the

Seventh Circuit has stated, a court "cannot presume that a

person who clicks on a box that appears on a computer screen has
notice of all contents not only of that page but of other
content that requires further action (scrolling,
link, etc.)." Sgouros v. TransUnion Corp.,

following a

817 F.3d 1029, 1035

(7th Cir. 2016).

Significantly for the purposes of determining whether
plaintiff was on inquiry notice, the hyperlink here to the
"Terms of Service & Privacy Policy" is by no means prominently
displayed on Uber's registration screen. While the payment
information and "Register" button are "very user-friendly and
obvious," Berkson,

97 F. Supp. 3d at 404, Uber's statement about

"Terms of Service" appears far below and in much smaller font.

As a result, "the design and content of" Uber's registration
screen did not "make the
details)

'terms of use'

the contract

readily and obviously available to the user." Id. at

402; see also Long,

200 Cal. Rptr.

3d at 126 (recognizing "the

practical reality that the checkout flow is laid out in such a

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 24 of 31

manner that it tended to conceal the fact that placing an order

was an express acceptance of [defendant's]
regulations.")

rules and

(internal quotation marks and alterations

omitted).
Indeed,

the Terms of Service hyperlink in the instant case

is less conspicuous than the one found not to give rise to an

electronically-formed contract in Berkson.
statement "By clicking 'Sign In'

In that case, the

I agree to the terms of use and

privacy policy" appeared above the most prominent "Sign In"

button on the web page. See Berkson,

97 F. Supp.

3d at 373-74,

403-04. This statement, while plausibly providing inadequate

notice, was actually more likely to disrupt viewers'

experiences

in some way and draw their attention to the terms and conditions
than the interface in the instant case, where the hyperlink
stating "Terms of Service & Privacy Policy" is located far
beneath the "Register" button and takes on the appearance of an
afterthought. See Mi Deel., Exhibit A, at 002. Moreover, unlike
in Berkson, the registration screen here does not contain
parallel wording as between the "Register" button and the
statement "By creating an Uber account,

you agree to the Terms

of Service & Privacy Policy." See Berkson,

373-74; see also Fjeta,

97 F.

Supp.

3d at

841 F. Supp. 2d (Dkt. 12 at 17). The

relative obscurity of the reference to "Terms of Service" in the

Uber interface is significant; courts have declined to hold that
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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 25 of 31

a valid electronic contract was formed when "the website did not
prompt [a party] to review the Terms and Conditions and because
the link to the Terms and Conditions was not prominently
displayed so as to provide reasonable notice of the Terms and
Conditions." Hines v. Overstock.com,
367

(E.D.N.Y. 2009), aff'd,

Inc.,

380 F. App'x 22

668 F. Supp. 2d 362,

(2d Cir. 2010).

As this brief review suggests, electronic agreements fall

along a spectrum in the degree to which they provide notice, and
it is difficult to draw bright-line rules because each user
interface differs from others in distinctive ways. Consequently,
courts must embark on a "fact-intensive inquiry," Sgouros,

817

F.3d at 1034-35, in order to make determinations about the

existence of "[r]easonably conspicuous notice" in any given
case. Specht,

306 F.3d at 35.

Here, the Court finds that plaintiff Meyer did not have
"[r]easonably conspicuous notice" of Uber's User Agreement,
including its arbitration clause, or evince "unambiguous
manifestation of assent to those terms." Id. Most importantly,
the Uber registration screen, as explained supra, did not
adequately call users'

attention to the existence of Terms of

Service, let alone to the fact that, by registering to use Uber,

a user was agreeing to them. Like in Long, the "Terms of
[Service] hyperlink[] -

[its] placement, color, size and other

qualities relative to the [Uber app registration screen's]

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 26 of 31

overall design -

[is] simply too inconspicuous to meet [the

Specht] standard." Long, 200 Cal. Rptr. 3d at 125-26. When to

this is coupled the fact that the key words "By creating an Uber
account, you agree to" are even more inconspicuous, it is hard
to escape the inference that the creators of Uber's registration
screen hoped that the eye would be drawn seamlessly to the
credit card information and register buttons instead of being
distracted by the formalities in the language below. And this,
the Court finds,

is the reasonably foreseeable result.

Further still, the wording of Uber's hyperlink adds to the

relative obscurity of Uber's User Agreement. The Court cannot
simply assume that the reasonable

(non-lawyer)

smartphone user

is aware of the likely contents of "Terms of Service,"

especially when that phrase is placed directly alongside
"Privacy Policy." There is, after all, a "breadth of the range
of technological savvy of online purchasers"

(and smartphone

users). Barnes & Noble, 763 F.3d at 1179; see also Long, 200
Cal. Rptr. 3d at 127; Berkson,

97 F. Supp. 3d at 400. The

reasonable user might be forgiven for assuming that "Terms of

Service" refers to a description of the types of services that
Uber intends to provide, not to the user's waiver of his
constitutional right to a jury trial or his right to pursue

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 27 of 31

legal redress in court should Uber violate the law.11 In other

words, "the importance of the details of the contract" was
"obscured or minimized by the physical manifestation of assent
expected of a consumer seeking to purchase or subscribe to a
service or product." Berkson,

97 F. Supp. 3d at 402. There is a

real risk here that Uber's registration screen "made joining

[Uber]
a

fast and simple and made it appear - falsely - that being

[user]

imposed virtually no burdens on the consumer besides

payment." Schnabel, 697 F.3d at 127-28.

Additionally, the hurdles for Uber users were not at an end
even if they did click on the initial hyperlink. Such users were
"taken to a screen that contains a button that accesses the
'Terms and Conditions' and 'Privacy Policy' then in effect." Mi
Deel.,

'TI

5 (b) . Once users reached the "Terms of Service"

the User Agreement), they had to scroll down several pages in

order to come across the arbitration provision, located in a
"dispute resolution" section. See Sgouros, 817 F.3d at 1033;

It may be noted, a propos the expectations of the ordinary consumer, that

according to a 2015 study carried out by the Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau, "[o]ver three quarters of those who said they understood what
arbitration is acknowledged they did not know whether their credit card
agreement contained an arbitration clause. Of those who thought they did
know, more than half were incorrect about whether their agreement actually
contained an arbitration clause. Among consumers whose contract included an
arbitration clause, fewer than 7 percent recognized that they could not sue
their credit card issuer in court." See Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Study Finds That Arbitration Agreements Limit Relief for Consumers, Consumer
Protection Financial Bureau, March 10, 2015,
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-study-finds-thatarbitration-agreements-limit-relief-for-consumers.

11

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 28 of 31

Savetsky,

2015 WL 604767, at *4. While the "dispute resolution"

heading in the User Agreement is balded, as is the waiver

the arbitration context)

(in

of the right to a jury trial or class

proceeding, users would have had to reach this part of the

agreement to discover the balded text at all
example,

(unlike,

for

the prominent warning about the existence of an

arbitration clause in Guadagno v. E*Trade Bank,

1263, 1271

592 F. Supp. 2d

(C.D. Cal. 2008)). Though "[a] party cannot avoid the

terms of a contract on the ground that he or she failed to read

it before signing," Specht,

306 F.3d at 30

(internal quotation

marks omitted), the placement of the arbitration clause in

Uber's User Agreement constituted, as a practical matter, a
further barrier to reasonable notice.
At bottom, what is at stake is the "integrity and
credibility" of "electronic bargaining." Specht,

306 F.3d at 35.

When contractual terms as significant as the relinquishment of

one's right to a jury trial or even of the right to sue in court
are accessible only via a small and distant hyperlink titled
"Terms of Service & Privacy Policy," with text about agreement
thereto presented even more obscurely, there is a genuine risk
that a fundamental principle of contract formation will be left
in the dust: the requirement for "a manifestation of mutual
assent." Schnabel,

697 F.3d at 119

(internal quotation marks

omitted). One might be tempted to argue that the nature of

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 29 of 31

electronic contracts is such that consumers do not read them,

however conspicuous these contracts are, and that consumers have
resigned themselves simply to clicking away their rights. But
that would be too cynical and hasty a view, and certainly not
the law. The purveyors of electronic form contracts are legally
required to take steps to provide consumers with "reasonable
notice" of contractual terms. See Specht, 306 F.3d at 20. User
interfaces designed to encourage users to overlook contractual
terms in the process of gaining access to a product or service
are hardly a suitable way to fulfill this legal mandate.
"[T]he Federal Arbitration Act

does not require

parties to arbitrate when they have not agreed to do so."

Schnabel,

697 F.3d at 118

(internal quotation marks omitted)

The Court finds that, in light of all the relevant facts and
circumstances, plaintiff Meyer did not form such an agreement
here. Consequently, defendant Uber may not enforce the
arbitration clause against Mr. Meyer. As a result, even if
defendant Kalanick were entitled to enforce this arbitration
clause and had not waived such a right - issues that the Court
does not now decide - he too would be unable to enforce the
arbitration clause. The Court hence denies the motions to compel
arbitration filed by both Mr. Kalanick and Uber.
The Clerk of Court is directed to close docket entries 80
and 91.
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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 30 of 31

SO ORDERED.

Dated:

New York, NY
July 29, 2016

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Case 1:15-cv-09796-JSR Document 126 Filed 07/29/16 Page 31 of 31

::.I 600

II Payment

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U.S.

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