It's not that clear cut. If you can prove in court that the majority shareholders are acting to the detriment of minority shareholders, that's actionable. See D

It's not that clear cut. If you can prove in court that the majority shareholders are acting to the detriment of minority shareholders, that's actionable. See Dodge v. Ford (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_v._Ford_Motor_Co.) The majority gets control over the vote but that doesn't mean they can freely screw over minority shareholders. If an environmental activist organization somehow managed to buy a majority stake in Shell, they couldn't just vote to pump it all back in the ground, cap it, and wait for bankruptcy. They could however decide to trade financial assets with the innovative strategy of "buy high, sell low" so long as you couldn't prove they were making terrible decisions with intent to screw over the rest of the shareholders.