Harris v. Blockbuster Inc.
United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
622 F.Supp.2d 396 (2009)
Blockbuster (defendant) partnered with Facebook to automatically share its online customers' movie rental choices with their Facebook friends, prompting Cathryn Harris (plaintiff) to sue for violating the Video Privacy Protection Act, which bars video-rental companies from disclosing customer information without written consent. Blockbuster Online's terms and conditions, which customers had to acknowledge, included a mandatory arbitration clause, but also gave Blockbuster sole discretion to modify the terms at any time, without notice, effective immediately, and with no limit on retroactively applying such changes to existing disputes. Blockbuster moved to compel arbitration under this clause, and Harris argued the arbitration clause was illusory and unconscionable.
Whether a promisor's unilateral, unrestricted ability to change contract terms at any time renders the contract, including an arbitration clause within it, illusory and unenforceable.