It can and has been in many cases in many legal systems. For example, let’s say you walk into my store to buy a dish washer. I say ”here is an extended warranty that I will give you. Just sign” you sign it instead of reading 15 pages of boilerplate. In the end of the document it says you now owe me 10 billion dollars. Doubt I will be able to enforce it in most legal systems.

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otterley 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That’s not an “I didn’t read it” defense. That’s a “term is this contract is unconscionable” defense. They’re not the same thing. I was speaking strictly of the former.

Also, striking an unconscionable term typically does not void the whole contract. Just the term in question.

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lukeschlather 8 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

All of these cookie forms have the same set of toggles. At a high level all anyone is saying is that we should just declare any kind of tracking cookies unconscionable terms for this kind of dialog box. Caching, shopping carts, explicit log in, these are totally fine and you don't need a dialog. The tracking stuff is not that hard to define and it should just be declared unconscionable.

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bryanrasmussen 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As a general rule I believe many online terms of use, eulas and similar online contracts are examples of procedural unconscionability, in that length is often too long that one can be expected to read it in the day to day action of "surfing the web", I believe this is also the opinion of the EU and many of its member states, hence the limitations found on enforcement of such contracts.

Aside from that many of these contract have terms that might be considered substantive unconscionability - for example if terms state that what you post can be used by the company that owns the service for marketing of the company or the service I feel this would not make it through most legal systems that I feel before the attempt are not inherently corrupt.

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otterley 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I would personally be shocked if the EU voids click-wrap agreements for unconscionableness based on the process alone. I’m not super familiar with EU law; is that what it truly says? I rather doubt it because I do business in the EU and have been asked to agree to terms as a condition of making purchases online there.

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simonra an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Online retailers in the nordics occasionally try to post terms and conditions that contradict consumer protection laws, for instance retailers being on the hook for warrantying product(ion) defects for 5 years after purchases of products that ought to be durable, like electronics. The retailers win out on a substantial amount of the population not contesting it, but if you as a consumer go through the process the findings is basically always in your favor, despite there being agreements to something else. Telecommunications providers also have a long history of having their consumer invoices being voided for being unconscionable despite service agreements, especially in cases with children playing with devices (but otherwise also), going all the way back to the landline age.

	▲	otterley an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Right. But those are substantively unconscionable terms, not about the agreement process itself.

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SiempreViernes an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

The council directive on unfair terms in consumer contracts puts every pre-canned contract in scope, and unfair provisions on a contract are rule non-binding (if the contract can keep existing after the unfair bits are taken out).

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A...

	▲	otterley an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Right. But those are substantively unconscionable terms (“unfair provisions”), not about the agreement process itself.

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Y_Y an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

That's why billionaires don't buy their own dishwashers

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nekusar 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is bullshit.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disney-says-man-cant-su...

"Disney is trying to have a widower's wrongful death lawsuit dismissed and sent to arbitration because the man had signed up for a Disney+ account several years ago."

Now what happened was that Disney quit fighting over really bad PR. But the court challenge would have liteky succeeded.

	▲	Paracompact 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		What's bullshit? You mean to say the dishwasher buyer would legally be on the hook for billions?