Legal lockout

Legal lockout is a form of rights stripping in which terms are implemented that modify users' legal rights or access to legal remedies. A common legal lockout practice is to implement forced arbitration of some kind.

Legal lockout removes or narrows a consumer's ability to use the court system after a purchase: arbitration clauses move disputes out of courts and into private arbitration, and are often paired with class-action waivers, meaning consumers must pursue claims alone. Because the terms are frequently presented as accept-or-lose-access conditions on existing products, consumers who decline have no way to keep using what they already paid for.^[1]

Main article: Activision Blizzard account lock and forced arbitration

A Battle.net update in March 2024 required users to accept updated EULA terms including forced arbitration, or lose access to their accounts and purchased game libraries.

Main article: Smartwool adds forced arbitration to EULA

In March 2024, Smartwool e-mailed customers new terms of use containing a forced arbitration clause, automatically opting them in unless they opted out by mail within 30 days.

• List of products and services with forced arbitration
• Liability limits