Published at LXer:

Microsoft is capitalising on a 2011 US Supreme Court ruling that upheld a company's right to include a clause in a contract that prohibits customers from suing as part of a class action. The case had been brought against AT&T.Class-action suits in US law are supposed to help individuals stand up to large companies, spreading the risk and costs of an action. Specialist attorneys are brought in to fight such cases. When individuals each bring the same action against a firm, attorneys will lobby the presiding judge to grant the case class-action status.Microsoft has been on the sharp end of a number of such suits. Recent examples include the debacle over Microsoft allegedly misleading buyers by authorising PC makers to label computers as Vista “capable” when they could only run basic editions of the operating system.

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