[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2897 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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114th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2897

   To amend title 9, United States Code, with respect to arbitration.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 28, 2016

 Mr. Blumenthal (for himself, Mr. Franken, Mr. Brown, Mr. Whitehouse, 
 Mr. Markey, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Merkley, and Ms. Warren) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend title 9, United States Code, with respect to arbitration.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Justice for Telecommunications 
Consumers Act''.

SEC. 2. ARBITRATION OF CERTAIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS DISPUTES.

    (a) In General.--Title 9, United States Code, is amended by adding 
at the end the following:

    ``CHAPTER 4--ARBITRATION OF CERTAIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS DISPUTES

``Sec.
``401. Definitions.
``402. Validity and enforceability.
``Sec. 401. Definition
    ``In this chapter, the term `predispute arbitration agreement' 
means any agreement to arbitrate a dispute that had not yet arisen at 
the time of the making of the agreement.
``Sec. 402. Validity and enforceability
    ``(a) In General.--Notwithstanding any other provision of this 
title or the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 151 et seq.), no 
predispute arbitration agreement shall be valid or enforceable if it 
requires arbitration of a dispute arising out of a contract for--
            ``(1) a commercial mobile service, as defined in section 
        332(d) of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 332(d));
            ``(2) a service offered by a multichannel video programming 
        distributor, as defined in section 602 of the Communications 
        Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 522);
            ``(3) a telecommunications service or information service, 
        as those terms are defined in section 3 of the Communications 
        Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153); or
            ``(4) a service offered by a common carrier, as defined in 
        section 3 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 153).
    ``(b) Applicability.--
            ``(1) In general.--An issue as to whether this chapter 
        applies to an arbitration agreement shall be determined under 
        Federal law. The applicability of this chapter to an agreement 
        to arbitrate and the validity and enforceability of an 
        agreement to which this chapter applies shall be determined by 
        a court, rather than an arbitrator, irrespective of whether the 
        party resisting arbitration challenges the arbitration 
        agreement specifically or in conjunction with other terms of 
        the contract containing such agreement.
            ``(2) Collective bargaining agreements.--Nothing in this 
        chapter shall apply to any arbitration provision in a contract 
        between an employer and a labor organization or between labor 
        organizations, except that no such arbitration provision shall 
        have the effect of waiving the right of an employee to seek 
        judicial enforcement of a right arising under a provision of 
        the Constitution of the United States, a State constitution, or 
        a Federal or State statute, or public policy arising 
        therefrom.''.
    (b) Technical and Conforming Amendment.--The table of chapters for 
title 9, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

``4. Arbitration of certain telecommunications disputes.....     401''.
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