Sponsors (69)
The bill expands access to courts and collective remedies for workers, consumers, and small businesses—strengthening enforcement and deterrence—while increasing litigation exposure, costs, and uncertainty for businesses and leaving room for some arbitration-related transparency and precedent trade-offs.
Workers, consumers, antitrust and civil-rights plaintiffs can bring disputes in court and pursue class or collective remedies rather than being forced into individual arbitration, increasing chances of relief and enforcement.
Consumers and small businesses can pursue class or joint/antitrust actions for widespread harms, improving deterrence and the likelihood of meaningful recovery for many harmed parties.
Updating and consolidating arbitration rules into Title 9 and clarifying cross-references reduces legal ambiguity and can make case handling more predictable and efficient for courts and litigants.
Employers and other defendants will likely face higher litigation costs and larger, less predictable liability from increased court and class litigation, which could lead to higher prices, reduced hiring, or increased business costs.
If the new statutory chapter preserves or expands mandatory arbitration provisions in some contexts, workers and consumers may still be blocked from accessing courts and class remedies for serious claims.
Removing or restricting pre-dispute arbitration clauses could lengthen the time to resolve some disputes compared with faster arbitration, delaying relief for some claimants.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Stops mandatory pre-dispute arbitration of employment, consumer, antitrust, and civil-rights claims and preserves 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 pre-dispute arbitration agreements that require people, workers, or small businesses to resolve future employment, consumer, antitrust, or civil rights claims outside of court. The law preserves the ability of parties to agree to arbitration after a dispute has already arisen and updates Title 9 of the U.S. Code to create a new chapter addressing these bans and related technical changes.