Supreme Court rules against Coinbase in Dogecoin sweepstakes dispute

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Thursday that a lower court needs to decide which of two contracts apply to a Coinbase Dogecoin sweepstakes in 2021, rejecting Coinbase's claim that such a ruling would "invite chaos."

Entrants into the sweepstakes agreed to two contracts with different terms for resolving a dispute. Some later felt they had been duped into paying $100 to enter.

A general user agreement said that disputes would be resolved viaarbitration, and one for the sweepstakes specifically said it would have to be resolved in a California court.

Coinbase wanted the Supreme Court to decide between the two, but the court sent it back to a lower court for a decision.

When there are two competing contracts, a “court needs to decide what the parties have agreed to,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in the opinion.

Coinbase believes that the decision would encourage those with disputes to challenge any arbitration agreement, but the court disagreed.