What is injunctive relief?

Courts can give two broad kinds of remedies. Legal remedies are money: refunds, actual damages, or statutory damages. Equitable remedies are orders about conduct, and the injunction is the most important one. A related remedy, declaratory relief, is a ruling that states the parties' rights (for example, that a contract clause is unenforceable) without ordering anyone to act.

An injunction can be:

• Prohibitory, ordering a party to stop, such as "stop sending texts to numbers that replied STOP."
• Mandatory, ordering a party to take action, such as "add a cancel button" or "delete these records."

Injunctions are enforceable. A party that willfully disobeys a federal court order can be held in contempt and punished by fine or imprisonment under 18 U.S.C. 401, which is what gives an injunction its teeth. See can you go to jail from a civil lawsuit for how contempt works.

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65 governs injunctions in federal court, and state courts have similar rules.

Under Rule 65(b)(2), a temporary restraining order issued without notice expires at the time the court sets, not to exceed 14 days, unless extended for good cause or by consent.

Courts treat injunctions as extraordinary. For a permanent injunction, the Supreme Court in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. (2006) applied the traditional four-factor test: the plaintiff must show (1) irreparable injury, (2) that money damages are inadequate, (3) that the balance of hardships favors an injunction, and (4) that the public interest would not be disserved. For a preliminary injunction, Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council (2008) requires a likelihood of success and held that a mere "possibility" of irreparable harm is not enough; irreparable harm must be likely.

Class actions can seek money, injunctions, or both, and the kind of relief affects how the class is certified.

Rule 23(b)(2) allows a class action when the defendant has acted or refused to act on grounds that apply generally to the class, so that final injunctive relief or corresponding declaratory relief is appropriate for the class as a whole. These classes are common in civil rights, privacy, and consumer cases where the goal is to change a policy that affects everyone the same way.

A (b)(2) class works differently from the damages classes most people see in settlement notices:

• No individual payments. In Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes (2011), the Supreme Court held that Rule 23(b)(2) applies only when a single, indivisible remedy would provide relief to each class member, and that individualized monetary claims such as backpay belong under Rule 23(b)(3).
• Usually no opt-out. Because one order affects everyone, members typically cannot exclude themselves.
• Individual damages claims often survive. An injunction-only settlement usually releases only claims for injunctive relief, leaving members free to sue for money on their own.

Damages classes under Rule 23(b)(3) can also include injunctive terms. See what is class certification for how judges decide which type applies.

Google Incognito mode. In a class action filed in 2020 in federal court in California, users alleged Google tracked them while they browsed in Chrome's Incognito mode. The settlement terms made public on April 1, 2024 required Google to delete billions of data records, clarify its disclosures, and let Incognito users block third-party cookies for five years. The class settlement did not pay money to class members, who kept the right to sue individually for damages. Read more on our Google lawsuit page.

Amazon Prime. The FTC's September 25, 2025 order against Amazon required a $1 billion civil penalty and $1.5 billion in consumer refunds, plus conduct changes: a clear button to decline Prime, clear disclosure of cost and renewal terms, and a way to cancel using the same method used to sign up. That case was brought by a government agency, not a class, but the conduct terms are classic injunctive relief. See the Amazon Prime settlement.

Price accuracy commitments. In the Dollar General overcharge settlement, the settlement agreement defines injunctive relief as a two-year period starting June 1, 2025 in which Dollar General provides dedicated store labor to help prevent price discrepancies, engages a third party to conduct pricing audits, and assigns an employee to track weights and measures inspection reports on pricing.

Data breach settlements. Most data breach deals combine cash payments with commitments to improve security, such as encryption, monitoring, and staff training, often for a set number of years. See how much a data breach settlement is worth.

A settlement with little cash per person can still produce real value if it stops the practice that caused the harm. A fee that is eliminated saves money for every future customer. A cancellation flow that gets fixed spares the next person from hours on hold.

But injunctive terms can also be used to pad a weak settlement. Watch for:

• Promises the company already made or was already required to make by law.
• Short terms, such as practice changes that expire after one or two years.
• No way to enforce the promise, or no one monitoring compliance.
• Attorney fees calculated on an inflated "value" of the practice changes.

Under Rule 23(e)(2), a judge may approve a class settlement only after finding it fair, reasonable, and adequate, and judges look hard at whether injunctive terms deliver real benefits. As a class member you can object at the fairness hearing. See how to opt out or object.

If a company is still doing something that harms you and others, an injunction may be part of the fix. Browse lawsuits attorneys are investigating, or get a free case review, which takes about two minutes.