I am not an attorney, but I think this means that Amway/Quixtar’s long standing arbitration agreement does not cover the tools business (in Missouri). In other words, what was once behind closed arbitration will soon be subject to public court.
I suspect, Amway/Quixtar is not happy out this.
The scope of the Amway arbitration agreement does not cover the disputes that are the subject of Nitro and West Palm’s petition against the Amway defendants. The clause is clear on its face and cannot be stretched to cover Nitro and West Palm’s lawsuit. It is not a suit against Amway, their claims are not brought pursuant to any Amway distributorship, they make no allegation pertaining to the Amway sales and marketing plan, and they do not allege the Amway defendants violated any part of the Amway agreement. Rather, the suit’s entire focus is that the Amway defendants allegedly conspired to misappropriate Nitro and West Palm’s BSM businesses. In fact, Amway has a separate BSM arbitration agreement for use by the independent BSM businesses in lieu of the arbitration clause in the Amway rules of conduct.
No comments yet.