Congress, make class-action lawsuits great again

Published February 25, 2017 5:01am ET



Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Beck’s beer, agreed last summer to pay a class-action settlement of up to $20 million. Any of the 1.7 million people who had theoretically purchased that brand since 2012 could come forward to claim $12, no questions asked, or up to $50 in the unlikely event that they had saved their receipts.

What wrong had these beer-drinkers suffered? The language on Beck’s packaging (“German Quality” and “Originated in Bremen, Germany”) might have fooled them into thinking the beer brand was brewed in Germany, whereas since 2012 it had actually been brewed in St. Louis.

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