Any legal disputes about these Terms are governed by Delaware law and must be filed in courts in Wilmington, Delaware — not your home state.
By requiring all court proceedings to be held in Delaware under Delaware law, Acorns makes individual litigation practically inaccessible to most retail users — reinforcing the arbitration clause's effect of discouraging formal legal claims.
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Compare across platforms →If arbitration is somehow unavailable and you need to go to court, you would need to file or travel to Delaware, which is impractical and costly for most retail investors and effectively discourages individual litigation.
(1) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: Forum selection clauses in consumer contracts are evaluated under federal law (28 U.S.C. § 1404 transfer provisions) and state consumer protection statutes. California courts frequently decline to enforce Delaware forum selection clauses against California consumers under the CLRA and UCL where the clause effectively strips California statutory rights. The FTC Act Section 5 and CFPB UDAAP standards apply if the forum selection clause is deemed to waive substantive consumer rights. (2)
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