> That seems like a problem in our legal system though. The civil legal system is designed to settle essentially private disputes between parties. It is not r

> That seems like a problem in our legal system though. The civil legal system is designed to settle essentially private disputes between parties. It is not really a matter of public interest whether my neighbour or I bear the liability for the tree branch that hits my parked car during a storm. Your discomfort arises because the actions of large companies are matters of public interest, such that a notionally 'private' dispute can still affect hundreds of thousands of people. Class-action lawsuits are one way to shoehorn this sort of dispute into the court system, but the other way is regulation. Depending on the framework, regulators can issue orders themselves or bring court cases for the sake of public interest. Unfortunately, good, timely, and competent regulation is its own hard problem.