UPS Keeps Shipping Charge Class Action Out of Court

United Parcel Service Inc. may keep a consumer class action over delivery area surcharges in arbitration, the Ninth Circuit ruled May 30.

“This case tests the outer limits of what constitutes a ‘reasonably conspicuous’ provision as part of the terms of usage so prevalent in the adhesion contracts of modern internet commerce,” Judge Michael Daly Hawkins wrote for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

But the lower court’s decision to compel arbitration didn’t leave the appeals court “with the definite and firm conviction that the district court erred in a manner sufficient to justify mandamus,” it said. ...