If you want to continue using your Roku box or the Roku app on your TV, you have to give up your right to sue Roku at any time in the future. And there’s nothing you can do about that.

Roku’s new Terms of Service, which you automatically click “agree” to every time your software is updated, now explicitly prohibits you from participating in class-action lawsuits. Instead, you agree to waive those rights in favor of binding arbitration. So far, this is all pretty standard. Companies across industries have been doing this for years. But for Roku, this is just the beginning. This is where the legalese gets really interesting.

"In recent years, a cottage industry of mass arbitrations has emerged," David Siegel, a partner at Grellas Shah, LLP, told Lifewire via email. "[T]he law firm files these thousands of claims in arbitration, with the defendant (the online service provider, like Roku) being charged millions of dollars in arbitration fees. Companies have tried to use the court system to get out of these mass arbitrations and have been unsuccessful." "Roku is taking a different approach than many other large companies (e.g., DoorDash). Its strategy is to make it so difficult and uneconomical to bring a small consumer claim that it doesn't get brought."

Roku's workaround is to make arbitration so tedious that no one bothers. For example, you have to write a letter to Roku first, and then meet with them in person or via video to negotiate – with or without your lawyer.