It's not that class action has a "bad" reputation, just that in the US, it has a 'meaningless' reputation. The punishment is generally so absurdly minor, and the time frame so long, that it feels like it's not even a slap on the wrist for the offender.

The popular perception of class action in the US, is something like, "yes, Kitchenpal knowingly sold thousands of Blenders that sparked out and caught fire, and burned like 50 people's houses down. But luckily your class-action lawsuit came through 10 years later with a check worth $3.22 as compensation"

"...and multiple millions of dollars to the lawyers who got you this victory"

Well, the lawyers usually work on contingency. If they don’t win, they worked for 10 years for free. So, the percentage of victory is compensation for their risk and fronting the money to work for a decade.

Further, as the parent post points out, the compensation to the individual is low. Even if the lawyers made nothing, what does the plaintiff care? $3 or $6? What does it matter? But the point isn’t compensating the plaintiff. The point is punishing the defendants and creating some kind of deterrent.

The point of class action is not to make the plaintiffs while with a check for $3.22. The point is punishing the defendants and creating some kind of deterrent. Yes, such lawsuits take too long and inflict too little pain on defendants, but sadly they are all we’ve got.

> Does class action have a bad reputation?

In the US at least they’re associated with companies preying on people and they never seem to actually achieve much in practice except for lawyers.

I would say they are a consumer rights problem, not a solution to consumer rights problems.

I think the value of class action is as a deterrent not a remedy.

Companies like making money and historically class action lawsuits have made it easier for employees or customers to cut into profit margins based on wrongful action by the company. The incentive to join a class action suite was less than each individual filing there own case. Hence the dislike

But, as the article perhaps alludes to, the tide may be changing on that due to legal industry automation. If law firms can file nearly identical lawsuites at scale then the incentives can again favor consumers and employees. This may not have happened in this particular case due to courts being unable to scale, but it has happened to companies like DoorDash. See https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.latimes.com/business/story/...

If you are suing because you want to recover your 300 Euros, a class-action suit that takes a decade and ends up paying you 5 Euros and results in no substantive change to the policy is a very poor substitute.

The value in class action lawsuits is as a deterrent to companies.

Also, most recipients of the 5 euro awards do literally nothing. The check just shows up.

What more do you want? Or more to the point, what alternative do you propose?

Living in the US, I don't feel like class action suits do me much good. Businesses are happy to send me $7 vouchers for shit I don't want.

Imagine a world without class action. It’s not hard. Think about your internet provider. If you are in the US, you undoubtedly waived your rights to class action and taking the company to court. And then you wonder why your provider raises rates despite you being under contract. Why they can advertise data-capped, throttled service as unlimited.

It’s because there is no way to sue them for an amount of money big enough to make a difference. The best you as an individual can do is sue for a few bucks. Who had time for that? So you assume that’s just the way things are. You get screwed.

But they don’t have to be that way. If only a lawyer could sue the company on behalf of all the customers for all those tiny injustices. All those injustices together would add up to real money that might make companies think twice. It would also add up to enough to motivate a lawyer to take the case with no upfront payment.

So I understand if you don’t care about $7 checks, but that’s not the point. The point is a check on bad corporate actors that screw you, but just gently enough to that you don’t personally sue them.