B&I Wins Arbitration Application for Wayfair in Missouri Tax Case

In an order issued on November 18, 2019, Judge Richard M. Stewart of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, Missouri, granted the application to compel arbitration filed by Brann & Isaacson client, Wayfair. The plaintiff brought a case against Wayfair, claiming that Wayfair collected too much tax from her, and sought class action status for her claim of over-collection of taxes by Wayfair on sales to Missouri. The plaintiff claims that Wayfair collected local tax from her and other customers on purchases at the wrong tax rate, although Wayfair remitted all taxes it collected to the Missouri Department of Revenue. Wayfair sought arbitration, arguing that the terms of use of its retail website require the individual dispute to be arbitrated, not litigated on a class basis, as the plaintiff sought in the complaint. In granting Wayfair’s application for arbitration, after full briefing and hearing oral argument by managing partner, Martin Eisenstein, Judge Stewart ruled that the parties’ arbitration agreement validly delegated the threshold question of arbitrability to the arbitrator, and ordered the case into arbitration. Wayfair is also represented in the matter by David Bertoni, David Swetnam–Burland, and Nathaniel Bessey.