Second Circuit Affirms Judge Pauley's Decision Rejecting Class Action Waiver Antitrust Claims Against Credit Card Companies

The Second Circuit yesterday affirmed an April 2014 decision by Judge Pauley (covered here) rejecting claims that American Express, Citi and Discover colluded to add arbitration clauses barring class actions to their standard card agreements.  Judge Pauley had previously ruled that the defendants had acted individually, and not collusively, when adding class action waivers to their arbitration clauses.  The Second Circuit declined to affirm on an additional ground proposed by American Express, which had argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing because they were not themselves cardholders.