On June 20, 2013, the Supreme Court issued American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant, a 5-3 opinion delivered by Justice Scalia reaffirming that federal courts must enforce arbitration agreements strictly according to their terms, including agreements containing class arbitration waivers. The Court emphasized that such waivers are enforceable even where the cost of pursuing an individual claim would be prohibitively expensive. Together with other recent decisions, American Express shows that class claims may be blocked by adopting advance agreement to waive class actions as part of a well-drafted arbitration agreement.
