You don't know how much it did cost them. Why would you care about how much they gained ? You can't compare something when you have neither value.

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anakaine 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Because if, as the regulator, you fail to benchmark what they gained then your laws can be ignored and your fines paid as simply a cost of doing business.

Its why you find the Australian regulator for consumer affairs handing out $200m+ fines to telecommunications companies, for example.

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Retric 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

By that logic regulators should lower fines if the action wasn’t profitable. Which creates an expensive legal fight around the net profits of some action were after guilt is determined.

Instead, it’s much better to scale fines based on the scale of the entity involved, which also results in huge fines, but it’s easier to measure revenue. Thus the fines are more broadly effective, and you can still escalate if they don’t stop.

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jmholla an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think that logic works. In your vein, if I say " If it gets hotter, I'll want it to be colder" that would imply that if it gets colder I'll want it to be hotter. That doesn't necessarily have to be the case thought.

If they made a profit and I want them to pay more than the base fine doesn't mean if they made a loss I want them to pay less than the base fine.

I think the rest of your come t stands though. There is difficulty I proving profit and Hollywood accounting can probably change those numbers.

	▲	fc417fc802 41 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's not about what you want nor is it about exacting revenge. The end goal is simply a marketplace where a given behavior isn't happening. Appropriately structured fines should accomplish that.

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tux1968 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Like in Finland where speeding ticket fines are based on your income. For instance, in one well known case a businessman was fined €121,000 for going 82 km/h in a 50 km/h zone.

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dataflow 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

And before anyone calls this crazy, note that jail time costs you your time, whatever that's worth. This is the same idea without the physical incarceration.

	▲	TurdF3rguson an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Most rich people still make money when they're in jail. Only people who work for a living stop making money.

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aidenn0 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That's considerably more than someone near me who was doing 245km/h in a 90 zone (Well 55mph which is 89km/h). I still don't know why that person didn't lose their license (other than the obvious fact that they were rich enough to afford the Lamborghini that they were driving in); it wasn't just any 55 zone, it was one with a reputation for being dangerous.

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3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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fc417fc802 43 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

This entire issue is sidestepped by having graduated fines (which GDPR has). If they keep doing it the amount keeps going up until eventually they go out of business. It really limits the ability to take advantage of the system which hopefully makes it not worthwhile to bother doing.