By Randa Morris
Corporate America is
always busy coming up with new ways to cover its own behind at the expense of
everyday people. If they aren’t buying politicians, bribing Supreme Court
Justices or collaborating with other criminals at an ALEC convention, you can
rest assured they’re doing something else to make sure their rights trump that
of the average American citizen.
Beware
of free offers on the web.
Almost everyone has, at
one time or another, used a coupon, entered a sweepstakes or just visited a
corporate website for product information. What you may not know is that doing those things could
constitute an agreement to give up your legal right to sue that corporation in
a court of law.
As if that’s not bad
enough, General Mills new policy crosses the line into crazy town. According to
the company’s legal terms, the
mere of act of purchasing any General Mills product also constitutes an
agreement not to sue them for any injury or harm.
“Please note we also have new legal terms which require all disputes related to the purchase or use of any General Mills product or service to be resolved through binding arbitration.”
According to this
policy, if you buy a product from General Mills in good faith, but later suffer
injury, you’re out of luck. If there is rat feces in your Cheerios, for
example, and your entire family is hospitalized because of it, you will be
required to settle your dispute through binding arbitration.
In other words, you
forfeit your legal and Constitutional rights to seek punitive damages in a
court of law, if you consume any product sold by General Mills.
A
2011 Supreme Court ruling gave corporations the right to keep you from suing
them.
In 2011, the US Supreme Court allowed
corporations the right to deny you the right to sue them. The court’s AT&T v. Concepcion ruling means it’s now possible for
businesses like General Mills to create and enforce the kinds of ‘agreements’
the company put in place in April.
Since that decision, more
and more corporations are adopting these types of policies,
designed to undermine consumer rights and protections under the law. By
purchasing a product, visiting a website, subscribing to an email list or even
stepping onto a corporation’s property, you may be unknowingly giving up all of
your rights under the law.
The advancing corporate
agenda includes buying our political system, dismantling consumer rights and
protections, eliminating local, state and federal agencies that provide
regulation and oversight, getting rid of minimum wage and overturning worker’s
rights, among other things. It’s not hard to see the direction we are heading,
and it’s frightening to realize how fast our rights are being eliminated.
Corporations are
interested in protecting their own interests, increasing profits and lowering
costs. It does not take a genius to figure out that protecting the consumer is
the last thing on their agenda.
Author: Randa Morris
has been a freelance writer for over ten years. She is an active political
blogger and administrator for several social media activism groups.
Originally
posted on take10randa.blogspot.com