A wrongful death lawsuit against Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is serving as a reminder to consumers of the importance of reading the fine print when signing up for a streaming service or smartphone app.
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00:00These contracts that we sign with businesses for any number of reasons, to use an online platform
00:06to enter a theme park, to stream video content, are often called contracts of adhesion. And they
00:15are contracts where the company has tremendous bargaining power and usually a large team of
00:21lawyers that has looked carefully at the contract and thought through all of its terms in rich
00:26detail. And the consumer is presented with this contract and really doesn't have an opportunity
00:32to negotiate the terms. It's yes or no. So if you want to use Disney Plus or you want to use one of
00:37the major streaming services, for example, to access the content that you're interested in,
00:43you really don't have a choice. You have to sign and agree to this contract.
00:47And that's problematic enough because consumers really don't have much bargaining power in
00:52those situations. This case sort of takes it another horrifying step further, which is now
00:59that contract that you signed or agreed to in the context of a streaming service is suddenly being
01:05pulled out by the company and applied to a dispute about your death at one of their restaurants,
01:11which is something way beyond the contemplation even of the most sophisticated consumer
01:17when they're signing up for a streaming service. So what's at stake is really any semblance of
01:23fairness to the consumer who is constantly asked to agree to these types of contracts.
01:29Yeah, it's hard to give actionable advice to consumers because the deck is so stacked against
01:34them in scenarios like this. And in this case in particular, the way this agreement is being
01:41used against the consumer is so unexpected, so beyond what any consumer would normally
01:46be thinking about when they're signing up again for a video streaming service.
01:51The best advice I can give, I think, is to support lawmakers and regulators that are attentive to
01:58these issues and that are taking systematic regulatory approaches to fixing these problems
02:03and preventing unfair and deceptive practices by businesses that harm consumers. And unfortunately,
02:09our legal system has been pretty permissive of this. And I think regulators and lawmakers are
02:15starting to catch on and to understand that the idea that consumers are knowingly agreeing to
02:22all of the terms in an adhesion contract is farcical and does not reflect the way consumers
02:30are able to move through the world. It really is just relying on a legal fiction that's very
02:37convenient to the companies that are putting forward these contracts, but not a system that
02:43really permits any sort of informed participation by a consumer.