It now says the case “warrants a sensitive approach.”

Disney tried to force the case into arbitration by citing the agreement on the widower’s Disney Plus trial account.

Disney has now agreed that a wrongful death lawsuit should be decided in court following backlash for initially arguing the case belonged in arbitration because the grieving widower had once signed up for a Disney Plus trial.

“With such unique circumstances as the ones in this case, we believe this situation warrants a sensitive approach to expedite a resolution for the family who have experienced such a painful loss,” chairman of Disney experiences Josh D’Amaro said in a statement to The Verge. “As such, we’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration and have the matter proceed in court.”

  • half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    32·
    3 months ago

    I’m just confused how anyone thought this was a good idea to begin with. Surely the strong public backlash could have been easily anticipated.

    • catloafEnglish
      13·
      3 months ago

      Most of the time, nobody notices.

      • half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        121·
        3 months ago

        Most of the time it’s not as egregious as trying to use a free trial for streaming to force arbitration for wrongful death at an amusement park. I truly can’t imagine any world where this doesn’t blow up because it’s so outrageous.

        • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          8·
          3 months ago

          The world where the government is for the corporations not the people. We’re getting very nearly there, with legal bribery and corporations being considered “people”.

          Sure the people might be outraged, but legally outage doesn’t matter and the corporations have a huge power advantage over a single person.

          • half_fiction@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            3·
            3 months ago

            While I generally agree with you, this case is literally an example of how the public’s outrage DOES matter and potentially changed the course of this case, regardless of the legality.

            • ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
              3·
              3 months ago

              Yes, for now. Their response says a lot as well. “We’ve decided to waive our right to arbitration”

              To me, this is them not wanting the arbitration clause itself looked at, and struck down.

              So they back off and let this one pass, until they have enough power to not care about the outrage. (And in all the future cases the clause still applies and they continue to fuck over whomever they will)