Cover art for Decoder with Nilay Patel

How companies weaponize the terms of service against you

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Published
May 14, 2026
Duration
54:36
Summary source
description
Last updated
May 20, 2026

Discusses Brendan Ballou is founder of the Public Integrity Project and author of the new book, When Companies…

Summary

Brendan Ballou is founder of the Public Integrity Project and author of the new book, When Companies Run the Courts, about the rise of forced arbitration. Forced arbitration is similarly everywhere in modern life, and there have been some very high-profile cases these past few years highlighting how deeply unfair these clauses are to consumers. Brendan’s …

Show notes

Brendan Ballou is founder of the Public Integrity Project and author of the new book, When Companies Run the Courts, about the rise of forced arbitration. Forced arbitration is similarly everywhere in modern life, and there have been some very high-profile cases these past few years highlighting how deeply unfair these clauses are to consumers. Brendan’s book delves into how and why we got here — spoiler: we can blame Antonin Scalia for some of it — but also, most importantly, how we may be able