Why are corporate fines for shady or illegal business practices so often less than the amount they made by doing those illegal practices? At that point, don’t the fines just become a cost of doing business?
Specifically thinking about Perdue Pharma. PBS article says they made $35billion pushing opioids, but the current court case is only seeking $6billion on fines. Ignoring the Sackler’s immunity request, this is still a net win.
In: 320
I don’t mean this response to be at all insulting or dismissive of your question. But I think you’re misconstruing the process by which laws which regulate industry behavior are crafted in a representative democracy. Almost always, the industry being regulated “lobbies” their representatives to meet and discuss the proposed regulation (or updates to it) and its potential impact on their ability to operate their business to “maximum benefit of the shareholders. The industry itself thus has a strong hand (arguably too strong) in the shaping of their own regulation.
Edit: typo
Latest Answers