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293 points giuliomagnifico | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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shayway ◴[] No.45108426[source]
> Amazon argued that the class was too large to be manageable

Sorry, we've wronged too many people to be held accountable! What a wild argument.

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gruez ◴[] No.45108604[source]
Looking at Amazon's filings, the argument they made is the following:

>Given the unprecedented size of the proposed class consisting of 288 million members, the individualized issues on which their claims depend, and the overwhelming evidence that the challenged conduct resulted in lower prices in Amazon’s store, Plaintiffs have not—and cannot demonstrate that a class action would be manageable.

The "individualized issues" references arguments presented earlier in the filing. They also cite prior cases where class lawsuits have been denied certification because the class was too big to be manageable. You might disagree with Amazon's lawyers here, but it's unfair to characterize it as "we've wronged too many people to be held accountable". It's an "wild" argument because it's a strawman.

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.wawd.29...

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solardev ◴[] No.45108967[source]
I don't see the difference between what the lawyers are saying and the parent's summary of it.

> we've wronged too many people to be held accountable

Sounds like exactly what it is... it's too big of a class to be managed, and therefore should not be?

In fact, the very next line is the judge saying:

> Chun found there was no evidence at this stage that the size of the class was overbroad. Other federal courts had certified class actions with millions or hundreds of millions of class members, the judge said.

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1. mikeryan ◴[] No.45110772{3}[source]
I mean there are technical legal issues in the size of a class. For example, any member of a class can object to any settlement agreement or any multiple groups of class members can object to a settlement making managing approval difficult.

The flip side to Amazons argument though is that if the judge decided the class was too big they could break into multiple classes and Amazon would end up defending themselves on multiple fronts. Usually companies facing these things want to roll it all into a single class for that reason alone.