In today’s age, you are probably familiar with terms such as a shrinkwrap contract (terms and conditions), which is a boilerplate contract included with a retained product, or a clickwrap contract (terms and conditions), which is generally a boilerplate contract that is digitally accepted when purchasing software or an electronic product. These are are boilerplate terms from manufacturers or vendors of products or software.  Arbitration provisions in these types of agreements have generally found to be enforceable.

 

In the recent ruling by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Dye v. Tamko Building Products, Inc., 2018 WL 5729085 (11th Cir. 2018), the court held that an arbitration provision included in a product-purchase limited warranty agreement on the package of every roofing shingles binds a homeowner to arbitrating disputes over the opened and retained product with the manufacturer, irrespective of whether the shingles were purchased by an owner’s roofer.   The shingles do not have to be purchased and opened by the owner for the arbitration provision to apply. If the roofer uses or retained the shingles for purposes of the owner’s home, such knowledge of the product-purchase limited warranty agreement on the packaging of the shingles is imputed to the owner (end-user of the shingles).  In this manner, the court summarized:

 

 

At the end of the day, the point is simply this: modern consumers are on notice that products come with warranties and other terms and conditions of purchase.  And they are free to research (or not), request (or not), and read (or not) those terms before unwrapping their purchases.  As to the case before us, Florida law makes clear that providing conspicuously printed product packaging is an OK way to convey purchase terms.  Florida consumers who purchase, open, and retain a product are thus bound in accordance with warranty terms conspicuously printed on that product’s packaging, whether they actually take the time to read them or not. 

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To summarize, then, acceptance of Tamko’s [roofing manufacturer] purchase terms—arbitration clause and all—was incidental to, and reasonably necessary to accomplish the homeowner’s express grant of agency authority to their roofers to purchase and install shingles, and in any event, the roofers’ notice of the terms printed on the shingle wrappers in properly imputed to the homeowners. 

Dye, supra. 

 

Arbitration clauses are favored.  So, the next time you purchase or download a product and receive a boilerplate contract with terms and conditions, such as a limited warranty document that contains an arbitration provision, remember, the arbitration provision will likely be deemed enforceable.

 

 

Please contact David Adelstein at dadelstein@gmail.com or (954) 361-4720 if you have questions or would like more information regarding this article. You can follow David Adelstein on Twitter @DavidAdelstein1.