Filing fees. There's still a legal fee threshold.

This isn't harmonized across the EU though, e.g. in German labor courts each side pays their own fees and lawyers regardless of outcome. So even a completely illegal action by your employer can/will still cost you hundreds to thousands of euros when you go and fight it. (The flip side is you don't have to pay for a team of expensive corpo-lawyers in case you loose)

The rules depend on what court you go to. In the first instance, both sides pay their own lawyers, but the court fees are paid by the loosing party (1). The fees are usually not very high, so that‘s not much of a barrier. On an appeal, the loosing party pays all fees, including the opponents lawyers (1).

Being in a union pays off in labor court: Unions usually offer sending their legal staff instead of a lawyer that you‘d need to personally retain. This substantially reduces the costs of a court case for the employee.

See https://www.klugo.de/ratgeber/arbeitsgericht-kosten

(1) or shared, on partial wins.

You're applying the American Rule backwards. There is no default presumption in the US legal system that you pay the winner's legal fees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_rule_(attorney%27s_fe...

Most people in germany (at least the ones with common sense) have a "Arbeitsrechtsschutz", a insurance which covers legal fees, a lawyer and so on. As this insurance is very cheap (i pay around 30 Euros a month) i can only recommend this for anyone working in germany.

In Norwegian civil court, the loser pays the legal bills for both. It may seem a bit harsh, but it does prevent frivolous law suits.

For work related cases, if you are in a union, they will foot the bill in most cases.

I wonder if this makes court cases a pretty high stakes game for even the smallest of issues? Interesting concept all the same.

At least in Finland it still makes things quite ugly from cost perspective. It is not uncommon to read about cases where costs are in tens of thousand for real-estate. Probably one of the more common things to take in court.

> I wonder if this makes court cases a pretty high stakes game

Stay away from courts! If your case goes before a judge, you're in casino country. Unless you're on the hook for some criminal offence, tell your lawyer to negotiate a settlement. Once a civil case comes before a judge, that usually means that there's a legal issue to be decided that nobody agrees on, which means that you can't predict how the cookie might crumble.

The loser doesn't always pay for both. In some cases (well, many actually), or at least in cases where party A sues party B and loses, the court decides that it wasn't all clear-cut and party A was right to get a resolution through the court system. In that case both may end up paying their respective legal bills.

Honestly I'd just have asked my union to deal with it... but that a little more in membership fee, compared to the €585, but it would have gotten me a lawyer who understands labour laws.