Opinion ID: 1870807
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Scope of Amway Clause

Text: Whatever their relationship with Amway, Nitro and West Palm contend that the scope of the arbitration agreement does not cover the disputes that are the subject of their petition against appellants. This Court agrees. The Amway arbitration clause states: [T]he parties are required to submit any remaining claim(s) arising out of or relating to their Amway Distributorship, the Amway Sales and Marketing Plan, or the Amway Rules of Conduct (including any claim against another Amway distributor, or any such distributor's officers, directors, agents, or employees or against Amway Corporation or any of its officers, directors, agents, or employees) to binding arbitration in accordance with the Amway/ADA Arbitration Rules. This is not a suit against Amway. Nor are Nitro and West Palm's claims brought pursuant to any Amway distributorship. Nor do Nitro and West Palm make any allegation pertaining to the Amway Sales and Marketing Plan. Nor do they allege that appellants violated the Amway Rules of Conduct or any other part of the Amway agreement. And in that regard, the petition expressly states, This action is not predicated upon the Amway Rules (since the BSMs industry is not a party of the Amway business), nor does it seek the enforcement of any such Rules. Instead, the subject and entire focus of the lawsuit is that appellants allegedly conspired to misappropriate Nitro and West Palm's BSM businesses. According to Amway's own documents, in order to avoid antitrust concerns, BSM businesses are organized in and operate in an industry entirely independent of Amway. And in fact, Amway promulgated and distributed a separate BSM arbitration agreement for use by the Amway dealers' independent BSM businesses, in lieu of the arbitration clause in the Amway Rules of Conduct. Although this Court is mindful of the many cases holding that the scope of arbitration agreements is to be liberally construed, the Amway clause in this case is clear on its face and cannot be stretched to cover the lawsuit herein.