Alticor Spin Doctor's hard at work

Obviously trying to do damage control on the stinging defeat in the Fifth circuit court of appeals, the Alticor Blog is spinning the ramifications of the court's opinion.  

"There was also a ruling this week in a separate case, known as Morrison, where an appeals court reversed and remanded an earlier lower court ruling. It’s the latest step in a long, long fight that we remain confident of winning. The ruling does not say that Morrison is right about any of his claims. It only says that he gets a do-over of the arbitration he lost in 2004."

"And another important point: Contrary to some of the spinners out there, the ruling hinges on the fact that the dispute is so very old — beginning before 1998, before we even had an arbitration program. Therefore, the effect of this ruling on our current arbitration program and current cases (a shrinking list, given the Nitro dismissal) is virtually zero. If someone’s telling you otherwise, don’t buy the hype."

If the Alticor Blog web master has not yet read the court's opinion, I will copy one of the more important lines from the document here. 

"There is nothing in any of the relevant documents which precludes amendment to the arbitration program – made under Amway’s unilateral authority to amend its Rules of Conduct – from eliminating the entire arbitration program or its applicability to certain claims or disputes so that once notice of such an amendment was published mandatory arbitration would no longer be available even as to disputes which had arisen and of which Amway had notice prior to the publication."

The Fifth Circuit noted that the dispute at issue arose from conduct that occurred before there was an arbitration agreement, but importantly, this was not the reason why the arbitration agreement was unenforceable against Morrison.  Rather, because Amway continued to have the right to revoke or modify it at will, the entire arbitration agreement was unenforceable under Texas law.

I do not think there will be a "do-over of his arbitration."  There is no enforceable arbitration agreement according to the Fifth Circuit, so Amway's statement is simply false. The remand is for a trial before a federal court - there won't be any more arbitration for the Morrison plaintiffs.

So much for the spinners.....at Amway.  I bet they will delete my comments from the blog's comment section as well..

If Amway/Alticor is telling you otherwise, don’t buy their hype.