DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND MUTUAL ARBITRATION AGREEMENT

Governing Law 

Use of the FabKids Services, membership in the FabKids VIP Membership Program, any purchases made through the FabKids Services, and any controversy, claim or dispute arising out of or relating in any way to your use of the FabKids Services, your membership in or purchases through the FabKids Services, FabKids VIP Membership Program and/or your Account, or products purchased through the FabKids Services (collectively, “Disputes”) shall be governed by the laws of your home state of residence without respect to its choice (or conflict) of laws rules. 

All Disputes between FabKids and you must be commenced within one (1) year after the claim or cause of action arose. 

Forum Selection/Jurisdiction

Jurisdiction and venue for all Disputes shall be in Los Angeles, California. Each party submits to personal jurisdiction and venue in that forum for any and all purposes. 

Agreement to Pre-Arbitration Notification

These Terms of Service provide for final, binding arbitration of all Disputes (discussed immediately below). FabKids and you agree, however, that it would be advantageous to discuss and hopefully resolve any Disputes before arbitration proceedings or any other proceedings authorized herein are initiated. In the event of a Dispute, the claimant whether you or FabKids shall send a letter to the other side briefly summarizing the claim and the request for relief. If FabKids is the claimant, the letter shall be sent, via email, to the email account listed in your Account. If you are the claimant, the letter shall be sent to Personal Retailing Inc., Attn: General Counsel, 800 Apollo Street, El Segundo, California 90245. The parties agree that, before either party demands arbitration against the other, we will personally meet and confer, via telephone or videoconference, in a good-faith effort to resolve informally the Dispute. If you are represented by counsel, your counsel may participate in the conference, but you shall also fully participate in the conference. Engaging in this informal dispute resolution conference is a requirement that must be fulfilled before commencing arbitration. If the Dispute is not resolved within 60 days after the letter is sent, the claimant may proceed to initiate arbitration proceedings or any other proceedings authorized herein. The statute of limitations and any arbitration filing fee deadlines shall be tolled while the parties engage in the informal dispute resolution process required by this paragraph. 

Agreement to Arbitrate Claims

Except to the limited extent noted below, all Disputes shall be resolved by final, binding, and bilateral arbitration between you and FabKids. 

The arbitration shall take place in Los Angeles County, California and be administered by ADR Services, Inc. and shall be subject to ADR Services’ most current version of its Arbitration Rules, available at https://www.adrservices.com/services/arbitration-rules or by calling ADR Services at 310-201-0010. If ADR Services is not available to arbitrate, the parties will mutually select an alternative arbitral forum, and either Party may invoke 9 U.S.C. § 5 to request that a court appoint an arbitration provider. To the extent there is a dispute over which arbitration provider shall administer the arbitration, only a court (and not an arbitrator or arbitration administer) may resolve that dispute, and the arbitration shall be stayed pending the court’s ruling. 

The arbitration demand must include (1) the name, telephone number, mailing address, username and e-mail address of the party seeking arbitration; (2) a statement of the legal claims being asserted and the factual bases of those claims; (3) a description of the remedy sought and an accurate, good-faith calculation of the amount in controversy, enumerated in United States Dollars (any request for injunctive relief or attorneys’ fees shall not count toward the calculation of the amount in controversy unless such injunctive relief seeks the payment of money); and (4) the signature of the party seeking arbitration. Counsel for any party bringing an arbitration demand must also provide a certification that, to the best of counsel’s knowledge, information, and belief, formed after an inquiry reasonable under the circumstances, (1) the demand for arbitration is not being presented for any improper purpose, such as to harass, cause unnecessary delay, or needlessly increase the cost of dispute resolution; (2) the claims and other legal contentions are warranted by existing law or by a nonfrivolous argument for extending, modifying, or reversing existing law or for establishing new law; and (3) the factual contentions have evidentiary support, or if specifically so identified, will likely have evidentiary support after a reasonable opportunity for further investigation or discovery. 

This arbitration agreement is subject to the Federal Arbitration Act and is enforceable pursuant to its terms on a self-executing basis. The parties agree that these Terms of Service evidence transactions involving interstate commerce. If for whatever reason the rules and procedures of the FAA cannot apply, the state law governing arbitration agreements in the state in which you reside shall apply. 

The arbitrator (and not a court) shall determine any and all challenges to the arbitrability of a claim, including disputes about the scope, applicability, enforceability, revocability, or validity of this arbitration agreement. However, all disputes related to the enforceability and applicability of the class action waiver (see below) shall be resolved by a court and not an arbitrator. In the event that the arbitration agreement is found not to apply to you or to a particular Dispute, either as a result of your decision to opt out of the agreement to arbitrate, or as a result of a decision by the arbitrator or a court order, you and FabKids agree that that Dispute must be resolved exclusively by a state or federal court located in Los Angeles County, California. The parties agree that all related Disputes that can be arbitrated shall be arbitrated first, and any non-arbitrable Disputes shall be stayed until the completion of the arbitration. 

Unless either party or the arbitrator requests a hearing, the parties will submit their arguments and evidence to the arbitrator in writing. The arbitrator will make an award based only on the documents. This is called a Desk Arbitration. If any party makes a written request for a hearing within ten days after ADR Services acknowledges receipt of a claimant's demand for arbitration (or the arbitrator requests a hearing), the parties shall participate in a telephone or video hearing. In no event shall the parties be required to travel to Los Angeles to participate in the arbitration. The arbitrator is authorized to hear motions for summary disposition. Notwithstanding any provision in the ADR Services’ rules to the contrary, and with the exception of Desk Arbitrations, the Federal Rules of Evidence shall govern the admissibility of evidence in any arbitral proceeding. 

The parties agree that all of the arbitration proceedings, including any discovery, hearings, and rulings, shall be confidential to the fullest extent permitted by law. 

The award shall be binding only among the parties and shall have no preclusive effect in any other arbitration or other proceeding involving a different party. The arbitrator shall follow the applicable law. 

The arbitrator has the same authority to award relief on an individual basis that a judge in a court of law would have. 

If at any time the arbitrator or arbitration administrator fails to enforce the terms of this arbitration agreement, either party may seek to enjoin the arbitration proceeding in a court of competent jurisdiction, and the arbitration shall automatically be stayed pending the outcome of that proceeding. 

The arbitral award shall be judicially enforceable. Any court of competent jurisdiction may, and upon request shall, enter judgment on the arbitral award. Either party may seek confirmation (judgment on the award) and/or enforcement in any court of competent jurisdiction. However, in any award issued in an arbitration conducted in accordance with this arbitration agreement, the arbitrator shall specify a reasonable time within which the final award shall be satisfied, and no party may seek to confirm the award until the time specified for satisfaction has expired. If the final award is satisfied during the specified time, no party shall seek to confirm the award. 

ARBITRATION FEES AND COSTS. The fees that shall apply to arbitrations administered by ADR Services are set forth on ADR Services’ website, available at https://www.adrservices.com/rate-fee-schedule/. Specifically, the fees set forth in ADR Services’ Mass Employment Arbitration Fee Schedule shall apply when twenty (20) or more arbitration claims are filed which: (1) involve the same or similar parties; (2) are based on the same or similar claims which arise from the same or substantially identical transactions, incidents, or events requiring the determination of the same or substantially identical questions of law or fact; and (3) involve the same or coordinated counsel for the parties. In all other circumstances, the fees set forth in ADR Services’ General Fee Schedule shall apply, except that FabKids will pay the portion of the initial case opening fees (if any) that exceeds the filing fee to file the case in a court of competent jurisdiction embracing the location of the arbitration. If the arbitrator finds that you cannot afford to pay ADR Services’ filing, administrative, hearing and/or other fees and cannot obtain a waiver of fees from ADR Services, FabKids will pay them for you. 

Unless otherwise prohibited by law or the rules governing the arbitration, all disputes relating to or arising out of the payment of arbitration fees shall be decided only by a court of competent jurisdiction and not by an arbitrator or administrator, and the arbitration shall be stayed pending the resolution of such disputes by a court. Both parties agree not to oppose or interfere with any negotiations or agreements between the other party and the arbitration administrator, or individual arbitrator, relating to a party’s portion of the fees. The arbitrator, however, may disallow any private agreement between an administrator, on the one hand, and the negotiating party, on the other hand, if the arbitrator believes that the private agreement undermines his or her neutrality as arbitrator. 

If a party timely serves an offer of judgment under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68, and the judgment that the other party finally obtains is not more favorable than the unaccepted offer, then the other party shall pay the costs, including filing fees, incurred after the offer was made. Further, any finding by an arbitrator that a claim or counterclaim was filed for purposes of harassment or is frivolous under the standards set out in Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11 shall entitle the other party to recover their attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses. 

CLASS ACTION WAIVER (herein the “class action waiver”). Both you and FabKids waive the right to bring any Dispute as a class, consolidated, representative, collective, or private attorney general action, or to participate in a class, consolidated, representative, collective, or private attorney general action regarding any such claim brought by anyone else. Nor shall the arbitrator have the authority or any jurisdiction to hear an arbitration as a class, consolidated, representative, or private attorney general action or to consolidate, join, or otherwise combine the claims of different persons into one proceeding. Consistent with their commitment to arbitrate all Disputes on an individualized basis, the parties also waive the right to bring any claims for public injunctive relief. To the extent applicable law prevents the parties from waiving a claim for public injunctive relief, all claims for public injunctive relief shall be heard by the arbitrator.  

SEVERABILITY. Except as otherwise provided herein, if any portion of this arbitration agreement is found to be unenforceable or unlawful for any reason, (1) the unenforceable or unlawful provision will be severed from this arbitration agreement, (2) the remainder of the arbitration agreement will be given full force and effect, and (3) severance of the unenforceable or unlawful provision will have no impact on the remainder of the arbitration agreement or the parties’ ability to compel arbitration of any remaining claims on an individual basis. In the event that a claim, cause of action or requested remedy is severed pursuant to this paragraph, then you and FabKids agree that the claims, causes of action or requested remedies that are not subject to arbitration will be stayed until all arbitrable claims, causes of action and requested remedies are resolved by the arbitrator. If there is a final determination that applicable law precludes enforcement of the class action waiver as to any claim, cause of action or requested remedy, then that claim, cause of action or requested remedy will be severed and may be brought in a court of competent jurisdiction, but the waiver contained in this paragraph shall be enforced in arbitration on an individual basis as to all other claims, causes of action or requested remedies to the fullest extent possible.