Social media sites are transforming not only the daily lives of consumers, but also how companies interact with consumers. Here at Morrison Foerster, across all of our practice groups, we are seeing complex, cutting-edge legal issues arising out of social media. As with the Internet boom during the mid-to-late 1990s, social media is generating new legal questions at a far faster pace than the law’s ability to provide answers to such questions. In an effort to stay on top of these emerging issues, and to keep our clients and friends informed of new developments, Morrison Foerster publishes this blog devoted to the law and business of social media.<h2>ABOUT MORRISON FOERSTER</h2>Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm that transforms complexity into advantage for its clients. Our clients include some of the largest financial institutions, banks, consulting and accounting firms, and Fortune 100, technology, and life sciences companies. Highlighting the firm’s commitment to client service, leadership in market-changing deals and impact litigation, and values-based culture, Morrison Foerster has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top 10 firms on The American Lawyer’s A-List. Year after year, the firm receives significant recognition from Chambers and The Legal 500 across their various guides, including Global, USA, Asia‑Pacific, Europe, UK, Latin America, and FinTech Legal. Our lawyers passionately care about delivering legal excellence while living our values. Morrison Foerster has a long-standing commitment to creating a culture that respects and celebrates differences, while providing an inclusive environment. The firm has achieved Mansfield Certification Plus since 2018 as a result of successfully reaching at least 30 percent women, communities of color, and LGBTQ+ lawyer representation in a notable number of current leadership roles and committees. The firm also has a long history of commitment to the community and society through providing pro bono legal services, including litigating for civil rights and civil liberties, improving public education and fostering the wellbeing of children, advocating for veterans, promoting international human rights, enforcing the right to asylum, and safeguarding the environment.

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Aaron is the chair of the firm’s Technology Transactions Group and co-chair of the Interactive + Digital Media Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals.Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data- and technology-intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud-based technology, digital media (social media, AR/VR, gaming, streaming media, AdTech), AI, healthcare, consumer electronics, e-commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on branding and marketing, trademark licensing, and content-related transactions, as well as the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin-offs, and private equity investments.He has represented clients such as Autodesk, Meta, OpenAI, Splunk, Konami, Kaiser Permanente, SoftBank, Visa, and Yahoo, among others.Aaron has been recognized by numerous publications for his work on market-defining technology transactions. He is currently ranked by Chambers USA for “Technology Transactions.”Aaron also serves as co-editor of Socially Aware, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics. Aaron is also a sought-after speaker on new and emerging areas of law, and is a frequent presenter and panelist at conferences and legal services programs. In addition to his active practice, Aaron regularly provides pro bono assistance to various nonprofit and charitable organizations such as Common Sense Media and the Starlight Children’s Foundation. He is a member of the board of directors of California Lawyers for the Arts.While in law school at the University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, Aaron served as executive editor of the California Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Following law school, Aaron served as law clerk to the Honorable William H. Orrick and the Honorable Martin J. Jenkins, both United States District Judges for the Northern District of California.

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Aaron is the chair of our Technology Transactions Group. He advises clients on a wide range of complex transactions involving intellectual property and technology, including structuring and negotiating strategic licensing, development, collaboration, procurement, and distribution deals. Aaron’s practice focuses on advising both established and emerging companies in a variety of data– and technology–intensive sectors, including software, SaaS, cloud computing, AR/VR, AI, gaming, healthcare, consumer electronics, social media, e–commerce, other online business models, and mobile applications. He also maintains an active practice counseling companies on the intellectual property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, asset spin–offs, and private equity investments.

Aaron P. Rubin

Lawrence Gallick is of counsel in the firm’s Austin office and a member of the Technology Transactions Group.Lawrence focuses his practice on technology transactions and licensing matters. His diverse experience includes advising on SaaS agreements, cross-licensing agreements, research and collaboration agreements, development agreements, and distribution agreements. He counsels a broad range of companies across the software, hardware, life sciences, biotech and FinTech spaces, as well as other entities including universities.He advises clients in connection with general corporate matters including contract negotiations, and leasing and technology placement agreements.Lawrence also serves as co-editor of <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/" target="_blank">Socially Aware</a>, the firm’s award-winning newsletter and blog devoted to the law and business of social media, and regularly publishes on various IP and technology-related topics.Prior to joining the firm, Lawrence was counsel at another major law firm. Before earning his law degree, Lawrence was a web consultant, project manager, and web developer in Portland, Oregon, where he managed and consulted on projects using industry methodologies and performed custom development and integration of content management systems.Lawrence was named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star” in 2015 and 2018–2022, and is licensed in both California and New York. Lawrence earned his J.D. from the University at Buffalo School of Law, where he was the electronic systems editor for the Buffalo Law Review and awarded the ABA-BNA Award for Excellence in the Study of Intellectual Property Law.

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Lawrence Gallick

Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster.Anthony advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. He regularly advises companies on the IP aspects of their M&A transactions. His clients include technology, digital media and content for television and music, financial services, and communications companies with diverse intellectual property assets and issues.His practice focuses on the legal aspects of developing, licensing, and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts, including outsourcing transactions, as well as content and data licenses. He regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to licensing and commercialization of digital media and content, digital content that is distributed over the Internet or streamed, mobile applications and social media, as well as the licensing of recorded music for distribution via digital platforms. Anthony is also experienced with issues relating to open-source software, software development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud-based technology, and protection of proprietary information.Anthony has extensive experience working on matters involving disruptive technologies, such as blockchain. He has helped fintech clients with general intellectual property issues in connection with terms of service for online financial products and services.Anthony is an integral part of the outside pro bono legal team for nonprofit organizations based in New York, including advising clients on legal issues regarding entertainment, social media, privacy rights, and the negotiation of outsourcing and service agreements. Anthony received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 2009. He received his B.S. from Cornell University in 2004.

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Anthony Ramirez is a partner in the Technology Transactions Group in the New York office of Morrison Foerster. He advises clients on general commercial and transactional matters. His clients include technology, media, and communications companies with considerable intellectual property assets. His practice focuses on the legal aspects of licensing and commercializing technology and intellectual property, as well as negotiating general commercial contracts. He also regularly assists clients with legal issues relating to mobile applications and social media.

Anthony M. Ramirez

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Socially Aware is devoted to the law and business of social media, proactively addressing emerging issues and keeping our clients informed of new developments. We cover fields such as artificial intelligence, privacy and data security, Section 230, intellectual property, and much more.

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A federal district court in Illinois recently held in Anand v. Heath that a digital marketing company could not force a user to arbitrate because a “Continue” b

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Court Holds that Arbitration Clause in “Hybridwrap” Terms Is Unenforceable

Court Holds that Arbitration Clause in “Hybridwrap” Terms Is Unenforceable | Socially Aware

A federal district court in Illinois recently held in <a href="https://www.bloomberglaw.com/public/desktop/document/AnandvHeathNo19CV000162019BL242545NDIllJune282019CourtOpinion?1562518361" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Anand v. Heath</a> that a digital marketing company could not force a user to arbitrate because a “Continue” button on its website did not provide clear notice that clicking the button constituted assent to the hyperlinked terms and conditions that contained the arbitration provision.As we have <a href="https://www.sociallyawareblog.com/2016/06/14/scroll-box/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted previously</a>, website operators who wish to enforce their online terms against users will have a higher likelihood of success if they do two things. First, the website should display the terms to users in a conspicuous fashion. Second, and applicable here, the website should affirmatively and unambiguously require users to assent to the terms. Anand demonstrates that online agreements risk unenforceability when the terms are presented in a manner that does not make clear to users that they are agreeing to be bound.The website www.retailproductzone.com offers users free gift cards in exchange for their responses to surveys and for their consent to be contacted for marketing purposes. Reward Zone USA LLC, a subsidiary of Fluent Inc., maintains the website. In June 2017, plaintiff Narantuya Anand registered on www.retailproductzone.com and completed a survey to receive a free gift card. According to Anand, she then received several unwanted telemarketing voicemails and text messages. Anand filed a putative class action against Fluent and Reward Zone alleging violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227. The defendants moved to compel Anand to arbitrate her claims based on the terms and conditions present on www.retailproductzone.com, which included a mandatory-arbitration clause. Anand argued that she never agreed to the arbitration clause contained in the website’s terms and conditions.When Anand navigated through the www.retailproductzone.com website in 2017, the words “I understand and agree to the Terms & Conditions which includes mandatory arbitration and Privacy Policy” were displayed above a “Continue” button. The defendants contended that, when Anand registered on the website, submitted her contact information, and advanced through the website after clicking “Continue,” she expressly assented to the arbitration clause contained in the terms and conditions. Anand denied that she had agreed to be bound by the arbitration clause.In determining whether the arbitration provision was enforceable against Anand, the court analyzed the configuration of the terms-of-use agreement on Reward Zone’s website.The court noted that online agreements often fall into one of two categories, using terminology that has become ubiquitous if not always very illuminating: “clickwrap” and “browsewrap” agreements. So-called clickwrap agreements require users to click on an “I agree” box or otherwise expressly manifest assent to be bound after being presented with the terms and conditions. In contrast, browsewrap agreements do not require the user to expressly accept the terms and are generally provided through a link on the website, often in small type at the bottom of the screen. In theory, users are assumed to have accepted a browsewrap agreement simply by using the website. The Anand court noted, however, that courts are generally reluctant to enforce browsewrap agreements.The court then goes on to note that many online agreements do not fall neatly into either the clickwrap or browsewrap category. Rather than abandoning the arguably misleading clickwrap/browsewrap dichotomy altogether, however, the court describes yet a third category of online contract, using the term “hybridwrap” to describe an online agreement that combines characteristics of a clickwrap and browsewrap. This mode of analysis, which a number of courts have employed since at least the Southern District of New York’s opinion in Fteja v. Facebook, holds that hybridwrap agreements “typically prompt the user to manifest assent” after presenting a hyperlink to the terms and conditions, rather than displaying the terms themselves.First, the court examined how Reward Zone presented its terms to users. The court noted that the terms themselves were presented through a hyperlink and that the user’s ability “to continue through the site was not conditioned on express assent” to the terms. Significantly, the “Continue” button did not explicitly establish a connection to the “I understand and agree . . . ” language preceding the link to the terms and conditions. The court outlined the deficiencies of Reward Zone’s configuration as follows:The hybridwrap agreement here is unenforceable because nothing expressly linked the “I understand and agree . . . ” language to the “Continue” button.  There was no “notice informing the user that, by clicking the button, the user [wa]s agreeing to” the terms and conditions.  Anand was not, for example, presented with an “‘I agree’ box after being presented with a list of terms and conditions for use,” nor was she otherwise “require[d] . . . to manifest assent to the terms and conditions expressly.”Second, the court rejected the defendant’s argument that Anand had assented by affirmatively clicking “Continue” to proceed through the website. The court pointed back to its finding that the website did not explain that clicking “Continue” would “constitute assent to the terms and conditions or that continuation was conditioned on such assent.”Third, the court also examined the placement of the “I understand and agree . . .” text above the “Continue” button. Here, there was “no connection between the statement ‘I understand and agree . . .’ and the ‘Continue’ button apart from the placement of the text above the button.” The court reasoned that the “mere proximity of a terms and conditions hyperlink to a button that the user must click to proceed does not equate to an affirmative manifestation of assent to the terms and conditions.” The opinion acknowledged that courts typically give effect to hybridwrap terms where “the button required to perform the action manifesting assent . . . is located directly next to a hyperlink to the terms and a notice informing the user that by clicking the button, the user is agreeing to those terms.” No such configuration was present on Reward Zone’s website.Finally, the court distinguished the cases cited by the defendants — where other courts enforced the terms of use of online agreements — because “those agreements included language expressly linking an action by the user to the manifestation of assent.” For example, in Fteja v. Facebook, the court held that the plaintiff “was informed of the consequences of his assenting click” where the website read: “[b]y clicking Sign Up, you are indicating that you have read and agree to the Terms of Service.” In <a href="https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/16-2750/16-2750-2017-08-17.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meyer v. Uber Technologies, Inc.</a>, the website’s text clearly explained that “[b]y creating an Uber account, you agree . . . . ”  Ultimately, the court did not find any “language that linked the notice regarding mandatory arbitration or the terms and conditions to the ‘Continue’ button” on Reward Zone’s website. Accordingly, the court denied Fluent and RewardZone’s motion to compel arbitration.Anand serves as yet another reminder that correctly implementing online agreements is critical to ensuring that such agreements will actually be enforceable against users. Regardless of the various flavors of “-wrap” terminology one uses, the keys to making online agreements enforceable are providing conspicuous notice of the terms to users, and obtaining users’ express assent to be bound by those terms.