Department of Enforcement v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.

Case Updates

The Board overturned the panel decision and determined that the FAA does not preclude FINRA's enforcement of its rules. To resolve the matter, Schwab entered into a $500,000 settlement to and agreed to notify all of its customers that the Class Action Waiver requirement has been withdrawn from its customer account agreements.

NCLC urged the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority National Adjudicatory Counsel to affirm the Disciplinary Panel’s decision in favor of the defendant company. NCLC argued in its amicus brief that individual arbitration is an effective means of providing redress to claimants and that class action procedures are not necessary to provide relief to claimants. NCLC pointed out that securities class actions are enormously costly for businesses and rarely benefit investors.

Andrew J. Pincus, Archis A. Parasharami, and Kevin S. Ranlett of Mayer Brown LLP represented the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as co-counsel to the National Chamber Litigation Center in this case.