Raphael Janove, ’14, Discusses Plans to Focus on Mass Arbitration with New Firm
How a Plaintiffs Lawyer Armored Up for the Mass Arbitration Battle
In a class action about the “Game of Thrones: Conquest” mobile game, attorney Raphael Janove had his own battle to conquer: Convincing an appeals panel that developer Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. designed the app purposefully to trick users into unwittingly agreeing to an arbitration clause.
“Here a user’s attention is drawn to striking graphics from the ‘Game of Thrones’ HBO series— large, huge fonts saying ‘Game of Thrones: Conquest’ and a bright blue ‘play’ button,” Janove told a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit panel.
But the judges were skeptical, particularly given that the image was uncluttered and had little more than a simple hyperlink, in white letters at the bottom, referencing its terms of service.
“It’s one sentence,” Ninth Circuit Judge Richard Tallman told Janove at the Jan. 12 oral arguments. “Other than that, it’s ‘Go feed the dragon.’”
The Ninth Circuit hasn’t yet ruled who the victor is. Janove is defending a 2022 ruling denying a motion to compel arbitration in a class action by Warner Bros. alleging that it misled users into purchasing virtual items such as gold and dragon food with false advertising, such as strikethrough graphics and special “sale” packs.
Looking back, Janove told Law.com, he should have brought a mass arbitration against Warner Bros.
“Nowadays, I would have done a mass arbitration in this instance,” he said. “I learned from the WB experience instead of fighting an arbitration clause, I can leverage technology and have good solid claims and will pursue mass arbitration whenever feasible.”
Read more at Law.com