ORDINANCE
WHEREAS, The City of Chicago is a home rule unit of government pursuant to the 1970 Illinois Constitution, Article VII, Section 6 (a); and
WHEREAS, Pursuant to its home rule power, the City of Chicago may exercise any power and perform any function relating to its government and affairs including the power to regulate for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, Over the last 10 years, thousands of businesses across the country have used mandatory arbitration to create an alternative system of justice; and
WHEREAS, Mandatory arbitration clauses are terms included in contractions of adhesion that often require a consumer or employee to give up his constitutional right to assert claims against the merchant or employer in a court of law as a condition of obtaining or keeping his job or using the consumer good or service; and
WHEREAS, By inserting mandatory arbitration clauses into consumer and employment contracts, companies bar individuals from having their day in court and joining together in class-action lawsuits; and
WHEREAS, Forced mandatory arbitration clauses are destroying a core American principle; and
WHEREAS, The Federal Arbitration Act was intended to apply to disputes between commercial entities of generally similar sophistication and bargaining power; and
WHEREAS, The Supreme Court of the United States has held that the Federal Arbitration Act prevents state laws from invalidating class action waivers in arbitration agreements, thus permitting arbitration agreements to extend to consumer disputes and employment disputes; and
WHEREAS, A recent series in The New York Times found that by banning class actions, companies have essentially disabled consumer challenges to practices like predatory lending, wage theft, and discrimination; and
WHEREAS, Companies have also shielded themselves from being taken to court over alleged discrimination, elder abuse, fraud, hate crimes, medical malpractice, and wrongful deat...
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