A small but important change to Discord’s terms of service has big ramifications for users. The social app’s terms now include a class waiver, which would prevent participation in larger lawsuits. It’s supposedly meant to prevent frivolous lawsuits, but if you want to protect your consumer rights, a simple email will opt you out of the policy.
The change was included in Discord’s October 16 update, adding a small “class waiver” section to the terms of service.
“Discord and you agree to resolve any dispute will be brought in an individual capacity, and not on behalf of, or as part of, any purported class, consolidated, or representative proceeding,” it states. The section notes that these proceedings would be handled by an arbitrator but does not specify who.
In essence, this section says you agree to settle any issues with Discord one on one using that arbitrator instead of, say, suing. Since that arbitrator could be a firm hired by Discord, it might not be in your interest to adhere to the policy.
The good news is that Discord allows you to opt out by sending an email to arbitration-opt-out@discord.com saying that you withdraw. You have 90 days to do so, and should make sure you’re using the email associated with your Discord account.
The waiver did not go unnoticed by users, who raised concerns on social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit. It prompted a clarifying response from the company.
“I want to be clear that we’re not doing this to dodge responsibility for anything,” a Discord representative said on Reddit.
“We believe in doing right by you, and we take feedback into account (see the recent Nitro Classic changes). The reason that there’s a arbitration agreement in our Terms of Service is that there have been a continuously increasing raft of class actions and firms that look for companies that are susceptible to class actions.”
Discord just launched the Discord Global Store beta, where users can purchase games. It is also updating its Nitro subscription service to include free games for subscribed users. The app’s expansion opens it up to greater liabilities, which may have prompted the change in terms.
For now, to ensure that you have as much power as possible as a user, you should consider sending a quick opt-out email before time runs out.
Comments
10 responses to “You Should Opt Out Of Discord’s New Policy Changes”
Yep, and email them with your account email and banned or have major acccount/application usage issues that for some reason they won’t be able to resolve at all making the service completely unusable…
a term like this wouldn’t hold up at all, didn’t another game company try the same thing in their terms and it go thrown out of court, and we’ve got Australian consumer law here as well so that’s a back up we can use as well
I’m pretty sure you can’t create a term and condition that wavers a persons right to take action against someone or some company, doctors try the same thing with surgery, yet they still get sued for malpractice
So email them with a completely different account as long as you get a reply saying you are out you’ll be covered, cause you didn’t email use from the account will lose to well this email I got from you says I did will always win
This doesn’t matter to us. As Australians we can’t have our rights taken away by a ToS.
Was actually gonna ask this question as to whether something stupid like taking away a consumer right like this would actually be legal under australian consumer law?
I mean not like i will be suing discord any time soon.. but not really kosher to add that
True. But from what I remember of the Steam case a while back, Discord would need to be operating in Australia for that to apply to them. Which is more than just having Australian users, they need to have services and infrastructure over here. (I have absolutely no idea whether Discord has any physical presence in Australia or not though)
One of the really nice things about the EU’s GDPR is that it applies to any business who’s service is used by Europeans, regardless of if they officially operate in the EU.
it’d be nice if we could make the same changes to our consumer protection and privacy laws.
Steam was found to be at fault as despite having a physical infrastructure they do sell and operate to Australian which is why they had to adhere to our Consumer Law. Discord would be on the same level as they operate personal and business users on their platform in Australia as well now sell digital games (precedence set: Steam) so they would fall under our Consumer Protection Act.
This primarily affects US users but I still highly advise that everyone opts out.
Class waiver?! I think not Discord. Let the ruling classes tremble. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Workers of all countries unite!
I have already emailed ACCC about this and I am awaiting for their reply
Wow and I thought I had uninteresting hobbies.
And this is where I say “I love you Australian law… I love you”. Just because it’s written in a contract, doesn’t make it legally binding, if you’re in Australia 🙂