Recalls are made by asking the manufacturer to repair all the cars, sometimes the manufacturer will argue the point that there is no issues, but once they have been told to do it, they have to.
Jeep in the US have been stuffed, with around a billion dollars worth of recalls, on 100,000's of cars made over many years, they refused to do the recall, but eventually relented fearing a major lawsuit.
Same in the UK, they get done, but the manufacturers don't like it, MINI has just recalled all Countryman's and Pacemans, (2010-on) for a fault in the wiring around the steering wheel, the car could catch fire, even when not being used, needless to say mine was moved away from the house, until today when it was repaired.