Wells Fargo Fake Accounts and Arbitration

Jeff Sovern has an excellent new article about arbitration clauses and class action waivers that uses the Wells Fargo fake account scandal as a test case.  He also does a monster job knocking down the Johnston-Zwyicki arbitration study.  As Sovern points out, the Johnston-Zywicki study makes a big deal out of some data on a Texas bank's voluntary refunds of fees in consumer disputes.  But as Sovern observes, Johnston and Zywicki aren't able to differentiate between fees due to bank misconduct and fees due to consumer behavior (account inactivity, overlimit, etc.), much less why the bank refunded the fees in some cases.  Highly recommended and relevant in the run-up to the anticipated CFPB arbitration rulemaking.