AG James sued the online arbitration platform Rapid Ruling and its founders, Zachary Meyer and Andrew Sachs, for fraudulently presenting Rapid Ruling as a neutral arbitration forum while secretly working with the merchant cash advance (MCA) industry to stack the deck against small businesses. Rapid Ruling was created in coordination with an MCA company, which wrote the rules of Rapid Ruling’s arbitration process to favor the MCA industry. As a result, struggling small businesses who were hauled into arbitration by MCA lenders for failing to repay predatory loans almost always lost their cases. This scheme, uncovered by an Office of the Attorney General (OAG) investigation, led to thousands of judgments against small businesses struggling with crushing debt to MCA companies. With this lawsuit, Attorney General James is seeking restitution for impacted businesses, damages, civil penalties against Rapid Ruling, and a court order forcing the company, Sachs, and Meyer to stop their illegal activities. 

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Taking advantage of them with predatory loans and unfair arbitration proceedings is both illegal and immoral. Rapid Ruling and its founders worked in secret to stack the deck against struggling small businesses. The sham process they created ensured predatory lenders almost always won, while small business owners were left with crushing debt. I look forward to getting justice for the business owners and workers who were hurt by this shameful scheme.” -AG James