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Unfairness Incorporated:
The Corporate Campaign Against
Consumer Class Actions

Executive Summary

Any doubt that big business expects to benefit greatly from a federal takeover of most state class- action laws is dispelled by the overwhelming amount of money and manpower that major companies and industries have spent on legislation that is now before Congress. This Public Citizen investigation into lobbying on class-action legislation – and into the corporate interests financing that lobbying – reveals several cogent points:

1. At least 100 major corporations and pro-business associations have banded together to spend millions of dollars and to employ at least 475 lobbyists to make sure that class-action legislation is tilted in their favor.
   
   
2. Many corporations that portray themselves as victims of unjustified class actions have, in fact, engaged in unfair and harmful practices that would not have been corrected if consumers had not been represented in class-action lawsuits.
   
   
3. Legislation now under consideration in the U.S. House (H.R. 1115) and Senate (S. 274), the so called Class Action Fairness Act, contains a number of changes that will enable corporations to injure or defraud average Americans while hiding behind legal loopholes or procedural technicalities.

To read full executive summary, click here.

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