Dive Brief:
- Love is Blind producer Delirium TV, LLC will face a sexual assault lawsuit by season five participant Tran Dang after a Texas appeals court refused to compel arbitration, according to an opinion issued Tuesday.
- Dang alleged fellow season five participant Thomas Smith “forcefully and without [Dang’s] consent” groped the actor, exposed himself in the nude to her and repeatedly made sexual contact without her consent and against her objections in May 2022, according to court documents.
- Delirium said Dang’s claims should be arbitrated, given a clause in the actor’s contract for the Netflix series compelling arbitration. However, the Court of Appeals for the First District of Texas affirmed the trial court’s ruling that Dang’s sexual assault claims fall under the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act of 2021, or EFAA, which creates an exemption from arbitration for sexual assault. Kinetic Content, one of the producers of the show, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dive Insight:
The Federal Arbitration Act grants the right to include mandatory arbitration agreements in contracts and creates what the appeals court called a “national policy favoring arbitration.”
President Joe Biden signed the EFAA into law in March 2022. Under the act, employers cannot force arbitration for sexual assault and sexual harassment, freeing those who make such allegations to talk publicly about their experiences.
Notably, while Delirium argued Smith was not an employee of the company, thus invalidating application of the law, the appeals court stated that the law does not "specify anything about how the assault must have occurred, or who perpetrated the assault."
Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson, who had to contend with a forced arbitration clause after accusing former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes of sexual harassment, was a major supporter of the bill. Carlson now is championing a bill that would also exempt age discrimination from mandatory arbitration.
The Love is Blind production company has also faced allegations it subjected participants to inhumane working conditions and enforced illegal nondisclosure provisions.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly characterized Gretchen Carlson's experience with forced arbitration.
