Good For the Goose, Good For the Gander

After making civil procedure history by establishing the principle that customer disputes against it must be pursued in arbitration one customer at a time, AT&T is now shocked that customers are bringing antitrust suits against it one at a time in arbitration cases rather than on a class action basis as they otherwise would have and are asking the federal courts to stop the madness and enjoin the arbitration cases. Apparently, nobody told AT&T that their ability to choose a forum by contract does not include a right to ignore substantive law established by Congress as well.

If At&T wanted to carve certain cases out of the arbitration clauses that they wrote, they could have done so. Now, turnabout is fair play.