Nicosia v. Amazon.com, Inc.
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
834 F.3d 220 (2016)
- Written by Rose VanHofwegen, JD
Facts
Dean Nicosia (plaintiff) sued Amazon.com, Inc. (defendant) after buying pills from the website that contained a controlled substance removed from the market three years earlier. Amazon moved to dismiss on the ground that “Conditions of Use” on Amazon’s website required arbitration. A paralegal from Amazon’s legal department submitted screenshots of registration and order pages Amazon used at the time, which displayed links to conditions of use that included a mandatory arbitration clause. Neither page required clicking the links to complete the transaction but said users accepted those terms by completing the order. Nicosia said he did not register the account he used and that the terms in effect when someone else registered it did not require arbitration. Therefore, Nicosia claimed he had no notice of the arbitration clause when he made the purchases and never agreed to it. The district court found the hyperlink reasonably conspicuous, making the arbitration clause enforceable, and dismissed the case. Nicosia appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Chin, J.)
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