U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear Coinbase case involving arbitration jurisdiction

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Friday that it will hear a case involving Coinbase and whether a dispute involving a Dogecoin lottery can be resolved through arbitration. According to a December 2022 opinion, U.S. District Court Judge Sallie Kim of the Northern District of California denied Coinbase’s motion to submit the dispute to arbitration, a move that came nearly a year ago. Arbitration may be favored by companies because it can be less expensive and resolve matters more quickly. The case involves two different contracts, one that will result in arbitration and the other that will be heard in a California court. Coinbase user David Suski chose to participate in Coinbase's Dogecoin sweepstakes in June 2021 and agreed to a user agreement that included an arbitration clause, under which Suski later chose to create separate "official rules" for the sweepstakes, which included A provision stating that California courts will have “exclusive jurisdiction over any dispute arising in connection with the Sweepstakes.” Coinbase argued that the user agreement should supersede the official rules, but a California judge ultimately disagreed. Jessica Lynn Ellsworth, outside counsel for Coinbase, said it is unusual for a company to have two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court for two consecutive terms. The U.S. Supreme Court decided in June to stay the lawsuit involving Abraham Bielski while lower courts decide whether the case should be heard in arbitration or in court. "They're not going to take a lot of cases, and they're not going to take a lot of cases involving commercial interests," Ellsworth said. Next, the case will likely be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court sometime in the spring of 2024. (The Block)