What is a Class Action Lawsuit?
By Timo Bakker · July 3, 2026 · 5 min read
A class action lawsuit is a legal case where one or more people (the "named plaintiffs") sue a company on behalf of a much larger group ("the class") who all suffered the same harm. Instead of thousands of individual lawsuits, one representative case resolves everyone's claims at once.
Why class actions exist
Individual lawsuits are expensive. If a company overcharges you $10 illegally, hiring a lawyer to sue them costs way more than $10 — so you never sue. But if that same company overcharged 5 million customers $10 each, that is $50 million in illegal profit. A class action bundles all those small claims into one big case, making it economically feasible for lawyers to pursue.
The three roles in a class action
- Named plaintiff(s): The one to three specific people whose name appears on the lawsuit filing. They represent everyone else. Get a small "service award" ($1,000-25,000) at settlement time.
- Class members: Everyone else affected. You. You do not have to do anything to be a class member — if you fit the class definition, you are automatically in.
- Class counsel: The law firm(s) representing the class. Get paid a percentage of the settlement fund (20-33% typically).
Current examples
Currently-active class action categories include: data breach settlements (any large company that has had a breach), privacy tracking (Meta pixel, session replay), consumer product defects, false advertising, hidden fees, robocalls / SMS spam. See the live directory for what is fileable right now.
Class action vs individual lawsuit
You give up your right to sue individually when you accept a class action settlement. If your harm was much larger than the settlement offers (e.g., you had massive fraud losses from a data breach), you can opt out to preserve the right to sue on your own.
For most consumers with small typical harms, class actions are the practical way to get compensated. Check what you qualify for in 60 seconds.