Sponsors (73)
The bill expands access to courts and collective remedies—strengthening enforcement for workers, consumers, and civil‑rights plaintiffs—but increases litigation exposure and uncertainty for businesses and could slow resolution or, if drafting preserves mandatory arbitration, leave some groups worse off depending on how the arbitration rules are written.
Workers (including unemployed workers) can bring employment disputes to court and pursue collective remedies (e.g., class or collective actions) instead of being forced into individual arbitration, increasing access to relief and deterrence.
Consumers (especially low-income and middle-class households) can pursue class or joint actions for widespread harms (like deceptive practices), improving chances of meaningful relief and stronger deterrence of bad actors.
Civil-rights plaintiffs (including people with disabilities and racial/ethnic minorities) retain or regain access to courts and class remedies, which can improve enforcement of anti-discrimination laws.
Employers and other businesses (including small firms) will likely face higher litigation costs and greater exposure to suits as more disputes proceed in court and class actions increase, which could lead businesses to raise prices, reduce hiring, or change contracting practices.
If the bill's new chapter preserves or expands mandatory arbitration in some contexts, people (particularly low-income individuals, people with disabilities, and immigrants) could lose court access and the ability to pursue class remedies, substantially limiting recovery and deterrence.
Defendants, especially small firms, may face larger and more uncertain liability from class and collective suits compared with individual arbitration, increasing legal risk and potential financial exposure.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Bans predispute arbitration clauses that force employment, consumer, antitrust, or civil rights claims into private arbitration while preserving voluntary post-dispute arbitration.
Official title: To amend title 9 of the United States Code with respect to arbitration.
Introduced September 15, 2025 by Hank Johnson · Last progress September 15, 2025
Prohibits contracts that force people or workers to resolve future employment, consumer, antitrust, or civil rights disputes through mandatory predispute arbitration. The bill creates a new chapter in the federal arbitration statute to declare such predispute arbitration agreements unenforceable while preserving voluntary arbitration that parties may agree to after a dispute arises.