Most of the time, its the lawyers that get paid and the class members get pennies.
I was part of a class action against Dell where they knowingly put video cards that had a high failure rate. Not only did I get the full value of the laptop back, there were insufficient class members to fill the entire amount they agreed to in the settlement, so they increased the total payout by an extra 25%. Got a full refund and pocketed 25% on the cost of a high end laptop. It was the only time being part of a class action paid off
WG