'Liking' General Mills on Facebook might waive your legal rights

JEFF GRAY

theglobeandmail.com

Can a company strip consumers of the right to launch a lawsuit against it just because they clicked “like” on its Facebook page?

The question came up after the New York Times reported that consumers who “liked” General Mills Inc., the maker of Cheerios cereal, were giving up their right to sue the U.S. food giant under new legal terms quietly posted to the company’s website.

In an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, a General Mills spokesman denied that its new policies would apply to those merely clicking “like,” saying the amended legal terms posted on its website had been “broadly mischaracterized.”

Still, company spokesman Mike Siemienas acknowledged that its new policy would apply to anyone who subscribes to any of its publications or downloads a coupon to buy its iconic Cheerios cereal.

The fine print at the centre of the controversy – fine print that few people read – is known as a “mandatory arbitration clause,” a provision in website terms and in consumer agreements that forbids customers from suing the company, or taking part in a class action, and instead forces them to take any dispute with the company to closed-door arbitration.

It is increasingly common boilerplate language that comes with the purchase of cellphones, cars, televisions and other products, as companies try to head off class-action lawsuits, particularly in the United States.

But lawyers in Canada say that consumers here have little to fear from moves like the one by General Mills, whether they “like” a company on Facebook or not. That’s because after a rash of litigation over mandatory arbitration clauses that began about a decade ago, Ontario, Quebec and Alberta passed changes to consumer protection legislation that restricts such clauses or declares them invalid in many cases.

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