A class divided can stand – Supreme Court of Canada holds that businesses cannot piggyback on consumers to escape arbitration agreements
By a 5-4 majority, the Supreme Court of Canada reversed a line of Ontario cases and held that s. 7(5) of province’s Arbitration Act, 1991 does not give courts discretion to decline to enforce arbitration agreements between businesses, even when those businesses are members of a class alongside consumers under the Class Proceedings Act, 1992.
