Arbitration in credit card cases decried - Los Angeles Times
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Arbitration in credit card cases decried

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Credit card disputes settled through arbitration are part of “a rigged game†that overwhelmingly favors companies over consumers, according to a report by a Washington-based consumer advocacy group.

Arbitration companies have a financial incentive for siding with credit card issuers, which generate most of the cases they handle, Public Citizen said in a report. Credit card companies track how arbitrators rule and don’t choose arbitrators who don’t rule for them, the study found.

The Minneapolis-based National Arbitration Forum favored companies in 94.7% of the 19,000 California cases it handled from January 2003 to March 2007, according to the report.

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Arbitration is “one of the fairest, most efficient methods†for resolving complex disputes, said Edward Yingling, chief executive of the American Bankers Assn.

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