Clickwrap forum selection clauses - a summer refresher
Despite the apparently unending deluge of regulations, rules and legislation flowing from the swamps of Washington, D.C., the dog days of August are usually time for lounging around the pool with family while catching up on that yard-high backlog of cases, articles and bills you piled up in the past few months. Summer's also a great time for revisiting the basics.
With this in mind, when a recent short decision from the Eastern District of California covering that old online staple of enforceability of a clickwrap forum selection clause appeared in my inbox I added it to the top of my summer reading pile. The decision, Meier v. Midwest Recreational Clearinghouse, LLC, 2010 WL 2738921 (E.D.Ca.) (No. 210-cv-01026), makes for some light reading around the pool and it remains a testament to hope over experience that so many plaintiffs continue to challenge forum selection clauses despite virtually overwhelming upholding of such clauses that has all but gutted the once widely held traditional rule that contractual provisions limiting where an action may be brought were contrary to public policy. While creative arguments are frequently worth pursing for strategic and other reasons, at a certain point fundamental reality can't be denied. But let's have some summer fun.
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