Keena v. Groupon

Keena (plaintiff) bought a discounted massage voucher on Groupon's (defendant) website but was unable to schedule the massage; rather than a cash refund, Groupon issued Groupon Bucks usable only on its own site. Keena sued on several grounds, and Groupon moved to compel arbitration under its terms of use, which Keena had agreed to when creating her account. The terms required arbitration for most disputes but allowed either party to sue in court only for intellectual-property claims or consumer-conduct violations, and required individual (non-class) resolution of disputes. Keena argued the arbitration clause was unenforceable for lack of consideration, claiming the litigation carve-outs were illusory since Groupon would essentially never bring an IP claim against her and she would essentially never bring an IP or consumer-conduct claim against Groupon.