FAIR Act of 2025

The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act of 2025 aims to prohibit the use of pre-dispute arbitration agreements in employment, consumer, antitrust, and civil rights cases. Currently, many contracts for jobs, credit cards, and cell phones include "forced arbitration" clauses that require individuals to resolve legal disputes through a private third party rather than the public court system. This bill would make such clauses unenforceable if they were signed before a dispute actually occurred.

If enacted, the bill would allow citizens to choose whether to take a company to court or use arbitration after a conflict arises. It also proposes to ban "joint-action waivers," which currently prevent individuals from joining together in class-action lawsuits. By removing these barriers, the legislation seeks to ensure that consumers and employees can seek accountability through a judge and jury for issues like workplace discrimination, wage theft, or corporate fraud.

The bill would apply to any dispute that arises on or after the date it becomes law. While it does not ban arbitration entirely, it requires that the decision to use arbitration be made voluntarily by both parties after a problem has started, rather than being a mandatory condition of a contract.