Corporate Fines Adequacy

Commenters debate the effectiveness and sufficiency of fines as punishment for companies engaging in illegal or unethical behavior, frequently arguing that fines are too low relative to profits and fail to deter misconduct.

📉 Falling 0.3x Legal
5,777
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#7001
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
2
2008
6
2009
37
2010
60
2011
62
2012
93
2013
151
2014
155
2015
181
2016
285
2017
236
2018
473
2019
560
2020
368
2021
626
2022
623
2023
763
2024
645
2025
430
2026
23

Keywords

reuters.com BILLION US HN fines fined fine deter penalty punitive bet rounding error just cost wrist

Sample Comments

miguelazo • Dec 5, 2022 • View on HN

Sounds like substantial fines are in order.

harperlee • Mar 5, 2019 • View on HN

A big enough fine has the same effect, doesnt it?

BbzzbB • Mar 23, 2023 • View on HN

Bet they'll be fined less than they've earned?

TheHappyOddish • Sep 16, 2023 • View on HN

They're not "getting away with it" though? They're being fined a large sum of money.

personomas • Sep 15, 2023 • View on HN

Unbelievable fines, that's the problem in this one case.

julienreszka • Dec 20, 2020 • View on HN

Hopefully this won't be abused. The fines are pretty significative!

jackpt • Aug 7, 2023 • View on HN

Aren't those fines inflated due to the companies having a large revenue/to make an example?

Paradox0 • Sep 15, 2021 • View on HN

Paying a fine isn't a real punishment?

maguirre • Feb 29, 2024 • View on HN

Would this not be target to fines, at least in the US?

amanaplanacanal • Aug 29, 2025 • View on HN

They might actually get fined a small amount!