No. 17-988October Term 2018Decided Apr 24, 2019
Lamps Plus, Inc. v. Varela
After a data breach exposed the tax information of about 1,300 Lamps Plus employees, employee Frank Varela filed a class action against the company.
Case status
- Current stage
- Decided
- Latest event
- Decision released Apr 24, 2019
- What it's about
After a data breach exposed the tax information of about 1,300 Lamps Plus employees, employee Frank Varela filed a class action against the company. The case asked whether a court can require classwide arbitration when the employment arbitration agreement does not clearly say the parties agreed to class arbitration.
Question presented
Whether the Federal Arbitration Act forecloses a state-law interpretation of an arbitration agreement that would authorize class arbitration based solely on general language commonly used in arbitration agreements.
- Case path
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit / Decision released Apr 24, 2019
- Area
Decided Supreme Court case
Timing
Decided April 24, 2019
The Court released its decision on April 24, 2019 without hearing oral argument.
Related cases
Grounding
- Grounding
- Primary-source trail available.
- Note
- Plain-English explainer. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.
- Checked
- Jul 3, 2026
- Method
- Methodology