Roku Will Brick Your Device Until You Give Up Your Rights

Ever since AT&T's 2011 Supreme Court victory, the courts have declared it
perfectly legal for a corporation to erode your legal rights using fine
print. As a result, most every service and company in the U.S. now uses
contract fine print to try and prevent you from suing the company (either
alone or in a class action), instead forcing you toward binding
arbitration, a process that usually favors the company.

Streaming hardware device maker Roku is no exception, having included such
language in its terms of service since 2019. But the company recently added
a new wrinkle to the annoying practice: they rolled out a new terms of
service that effectively blocks you from being able to use your Roku
streaming device or TV until you agree to the immolation of your own legal
rights.

The company's terms of service feature a freshly-designed "Informal Dispute
Resolution" system, whereby anybody who has a complaint about Roku's
service is required to have a "meet-and-confer" call with Roku lawyers, who
claim they'll "make a fair, fact-based offer of resolution". If that
doesn't work, you're sent to binding arbitration. If you disagree, your
devices become paperweights.

You can still opt out of the arbitration and dispute resolution rules and
use your device, but it requires sending a written letter (including a
bunch of personal and device information the company likely already has) to
a Roku lawyer who may or may not resolve your concerns on a timely basis:

Stephen Kay, General Counsel, Roku, Inc.
1701 Junction Court, Suite 100
San Jose, CA 95112

Not too surprisingly, Roku is refusing to respond to press inquiries as to
why it thought being a restrictive and obnoxious jackass was a great
business decision.

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/03/14/roku-will-brick-your-streaming-devices-if-you-dont-agree-to-binding-arbitration/