Coinbase Made an Arbitration Case to the U.S. Supreme Court – Again

Crypto
exchange
Coinbase
(COIN)
again

led
a
legal
charge
on
the
ins
and
outs
of
arbitration
in
the
U.S.
Supreme
Court
on
Wednesday.
The
latest
case
isn’t
about
digital
assets,
directly,
but
it
may
be
important
for
every
modern
consumer
who
buys,
registers
or
contracts
for
a
product
or
service
–
and
for
the
businesses
trying
to
stay
out
of
court.

Lawyers
for
Coinbase,
who
had

previously
won
a
case
about
whether
a
lawsuit
can
move
forward
if
there’s
an
ongoing
appeal
about
whether
it
should
be
in
arbitration,
appeared
again
in
another
case
stemming
from
the
legal
agreements
that
control
how
disputes
between
companies
and
their
clients
are
handled.
This
one
is
about
who
should
make
the
decision
about
a
dispute
going
into
arbitration
in
the
event
that
multiple
contracts
affect
the
parties.

These
highly
technical
legal
matters
have
nothing
to
do
with
crypto,
except
for
the
fact
that
the
industry
is
as
reliant
on
arbitration
agreements
as
any
other
corner
of
the
tech
sector.
These
agreements
often
require
that
unhappy
customers
take
disputes
to
a
third-party
arbitrator
rather
than
pressing
lawsuits
in
the
courts.

Coinbase,
which
contends
that
an
arbitrator
should
decide
where
such
a
conflict
should
be
handled,
lost
in
the
lower
courts
and
asked
the
justices
to
reject
those
rulings
and
remand
the
case
back
to
the
earlier
court.

“Lower
courts
cannot
collapse
the
who-decides
questions,”
Coinbase’s
chief
attorney
in
the
case,

Jessica
Ellsworth
of
Hogan
Lovells,
said
to
the
justices
on
Wednesday.
“We
think
the
court
should
reverse
and
remand.”

Eventually,
the
Supreme
Court
is
likely
to
weigh
questions
that
are
central
to
the
nature
and
survival
of
crypto
in
the
U.S.
–
namely,
what
makes
a
digital
asset
a
security
or
a
commodity,
and
what
are
the
government’s
powers
to
oversee
the
markets
where
such
assets
change
hands.
But
those
cases
are
still
winding
through
lower
courts
and
may
not
rise
to
the
high
court’s
consideration
for
many
months
or
even
years.

Read
More:



Why
Power
Is
Passing
to
Courts
to
Make
US
Crypto
Policy