Even if you go to arbitration Apple will still need to justify their actions to the arbitrator.

Literally smalls claims / arbitration works.

Except Apple is paying the arbitrator, so they are inclined to give them the benefit of any doubt. Not saying you can't win in arb, but it's an uphill battle.

Apple is paying the arbitrator because it's a requirement of arbitration.

Apple is happy to do this because even when the arbitrator decides they're in the wrong it'll 1) be much faster than court 2) be much less than a jury awards. There are pretty much 2 arbitrators in the US and so they can afford to lose a single client.

Its only uphill if you have an actually bad argument such as _just_ the statement "they broke our TOS.".

Wouldn't the company still need to show up and tell the judge that there is an arbitration clause?

Additionally (I am not a lawyer) arbitration does not override any court or have any authority unless authorized by a court. If a party does not cooperate with the arbitration, the other party still has to go to court to convince a judge that the arbitration was good and get the judge to enter a judgement against the noncompliant party.

If the consumer sues in small claims court, then the company would need to petition the court to compel arbitration. Large companies (like Apple) sometimes expend what would seem like irrational amounts of money on lawyers to make a statement. So, I wouldn't assume that they would balk at petitioning to compel arbitration.

In terms of the arbitration itself, it is very hard in the US to get an arbitration award overturned. So, wouldn't bank on that.