Venmo forcing arbitration - how to opt-out of it

glennmagusharvey

I got an e-mail from Venmo saying that Venmo is updating their user agreement to force binding arbitration unless you opt-out in time:

Requires you to follow the Opt-Out Procedure to opt-out of the Agreement to Arbitrate by mailing us a written notice. If you are a new user, the opt-out notice must be postmarked no later than 30 days after the date you accept this user agreement for the first time. If you are a current Venmo user and previously accepted the User Agreement prior to the introduction of this Agreement to Arbitrate on May 23, 2022, the opt-out notice must be postmarked no later than June 22, 2022.

Source: https://venmo.com/legal/us-user-agreement/

Here's the page with instructions on how to opt out: https://help.venmo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360062640153

Salix Babylonika

what does that actually mean

Princess Alice

Basically, they're putting it in their terms of service that, if you ever have a legal issue, instead of taking them to an actual court, you must agree to go through arbitration with whatever venue they provide. As you can imagine, the arbitrators that corporations choose are not exactly unbiased and tend to favor the corporation.

It's probably not going to ever become an issue for 99% of people, but the option is there if you feel you need to opt-out.