IBM Is On The Hot Plate

Many people do not realize all of the things that are happening in current events surrounding IBM.  Since they have been in the news a lot since 2013, it should not come as a surprise that there is yet another lawsuit taking place against the company.  What one might need to know though is exactly what a class action suit is and how this is going to affect them with other companies.

All About Class Action Suits

With a class action suit, a group is suing the company.  This is something that is primarily seen in the US but from time to time these lawsuits do happen in other countries that have civil law.  Any class action suit that is for more than $5,000,000 is actually required to be tried in a federal court.  The thing that is different in these cases is that the group can be of any number of people.

In most companies what happens is that information is discovered that proves that a company has lied to the general population including their customers or investors.  When this happens it means that those who are affected by the lie should be compensated in some way.  The class action suit takes place when a lawyer or team of lawyers try to help represent these customers or investors who are affected.  The ultimate goal is compensation for what has been lost because of the lie or unresolved issue.

Recent Class Action Suits

There are a lot of recent class action suits that people should be aware of.  One of these is a recent lawsuit that has been with Alibaba.  The goods company has been accused of selling goods that are not authentic.  In fact it is estimated that about 60% of the goods that are sold through the website are knock offs.  This is not illegal if they are labeled correctly but when a customer thinks that they are getting one thing and in reality they are getting something else then they have certain protections afforded to them.

In short Alibaba is producing fakes and is getting sued because of it.  Robbins Geller, the law firm involved in class action, is currently in the middle of a long battle with IBM.  In this class action suit it is not about the company producing fakes.  Instead with IBM the lawsuit claims that they hid important information about the financial well being of the company from investors and potential investors.  In turn, since they were giving out false information, people chose to invest in their business even though they might not have with the honest information.

Another highly publicized class action suit is the one that was taken against Nutella.  In this lawsuit a mom realized that the ingredients in Nutella were not nearly as healthy as advertising and company information would lead you to believe.  In fact this mom was able to win this class action suit because the ingredients in Nutella were actually pretty unhealthy.   The sugar and fat in Nutella and fact that half of the calories come from fat, makes it a pretty unhealthy choice for breakfast and is actually like eating a candy bar for breakfast.

What Does It All Mean?

What it means is that when you are in a situation that is not legally fair, there are things that you can do to get what you deserve.  In the case of health and wellness companies should be honest with their customers.  This is also the case when it comes to financial issues.  It is not fair to someone investing if a company is not being honest about losses and net profits.