There's something called "The American Rule" which sets USA apart from pretty much the rest of the world.
In USA, win or loose, each party pays their own lawyer.
This is why USA has lawyers often work on "contingency" where they nominally work for free, but receive a large fraction of any settlement or award if the case is won.
In the rest of the world, and specifically in EU where this applies, the looser pays the winner's (reasonable) legal fees.
Not saying that lawyers are not greedy in EU, but not in the way USAnians are used to think about lawyers.
Comments
There's something called "The American Rule" which sets USA apart from pretty much the rest of the world.
In USA, win or loose, each party pays their own lawyer.
This is why USA has lawyers often work on "contingency" where they nominally work for free, but receive a large fraction of any settlement or award if the case is won.
In the rest of the world, and specifically in EU where this applies, the looser pays the winner's (reasonable) legal fees.
Not saying that lawyers are not greedy in EU, but not in the way USAnians are used to think about lawyers.
So no: This is genuine consumer protection.