1/25th of revenue sounds small but if you have a profit margin of 30% that's already 13% of your profit just gone. At 10% margin it's 40% of your profit.
I think large business still very much cares when 40% of annual profit just goes poof.
Meanwhile the large company grudgingly pays their fine and rolls on.
The EU has no interest in bankrupting anyone, there are guidelines setup by the EU for the regulators for this.
Effective, proportionate and dissuasive fines are widely understood under common EU law that the fine may not bankcrupt a corporation, if it does for whatever reason because it's too high, you can seek legal remedies against the authority as per GDPR Art. 78
And that is only the GDPR, there are similar provisions in all EU member countries.
The exception will be, of course, if you caused economic damage to users or others, in which case you'll have a case at the regulator and a court case will be opened too, both of which are independent and the court case can certainly bankcrupt you if the damages far exceed what your company has in assets (in which case your company will be forcefully dissolved and that's that)
This is yet another example of: “the EU regulators are our friends! You can trust them!”
I’ll pass.
I mean, is there any sensible way to prevent regulators from bankrupting a company without some level of discretion and case-by-case consideration?
Moving everything into the legal system also has issues, as you point out.
For now all of the benefits are hypothetical, and some people think they’re feeling the pain, so we’re at the peak of a whining asymptote. This is buoyed by the fact that some people resent regulations on ideological grounds, and others resent anything that in any way restrains their freedom to “hustle” by screwing over people for money.
What are you talking about, it's great.