this post was submitted on 14 Jan 2024
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Technology
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I don't know, a percentage of revenue hurts more than the same percentage of net profit. Maybe some companies need to be forced to operate at a net loss until they clean up their act.
I'm not arguing about the fines themselves, those can indeed be scaled by revenue. I also agree that many fines should be higher to prevent companies from merely seeing them as an operating cost.
However, my point is that company revenue can't be used 1:1 to pay off fines. That doesn't take into account that revenue also has to cover all other operating expenses and taxes. As an example, the article states that Meta would take roughly 5½ days to pay off its fines, but taking the 23.42% profit margin into account a more realistic answer is 23½ days.
You're making good points and I think we're on the same page. I agree that revenue does not equal profit, I just want the fines to be as high as possible.