The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has ruled that a bank cannot force a customer into arbitration instead of litigation over a challenge to overdraft fees for debit card purchases.

“Arbitration, after all, ‘is simply a matter of contract’ such that parties cannot be required to arbitrate a matter unless they have agreed to arbitration,” said Judge Michael Melloy of the Eighth Circuit, sitting in by designation at the Eleventh Circuit and writing for a panel that included Judge Gerald Tjoflat and Julie Carnes.