The justices took up Coinbase's appeal of a lower court's ruling that the trading platform had effectively waived its right to arbitrate a dispute stemming from a 2021 sweepstakes that users later alleged was false advertising.
At issue in the case is whether it is up to a judge or an arbitrator to decide which of two apparently conflicting agreements is controlling in the dispute between Coinbase and its aggrieved users. The decision about which contract prevails, in turn, would determine if the dispute proceeds in arbitration or in court.
When users later accused the company of violating California's false advertising law by duping them into paying to participate in a sweepstakes that offered prizes in dogecoin, a type of cryptocurrency, they brought a class action suit in federal court.