Michael Hiltzik: Ruling is a big loss for Uber riders

For a brief, shining moment, a federal judge imposed the principle of equality in Uber's dealings with its passengers. The judge was Jed S. Rakoff of U.S. district court in New York, who in a price-fixing lawsuit last year overturned an obscure provision of the company's customer agreement that required all disputes to be resolved by an arbitrator and barred class-action complaints.

Uber can breathe easier now, because that moment is over. On Friday, a federal appeals court overruled Rakoff and reinstated the arbitration provision.

Even though Spencer Meyer, the customer who brought the lawsuit, said he hadn't seen the arbitration language when he set up his Uber account, the appeals court said he could have read it if he wanted to. It was right there, lurking within a "terms and conditions"