> Right there. The cost of violations is priced in. Companies actually misbehave and simply accept a potential fine as a business expense.

I don't get the point of this. Should Facebook not set aside an amount for likely litigation? The fact is that these regulations are very vague and regulatory authorities have a lot of discretion. Notice that the article simply says Whats app failed to provide "transparency of information provided to users about the processing of their data between WhatsApp and other Facebook companies." Imagine being in a company and your task is to prevent this sort of thing. What does this mean? I'm sure its in the disclaimer, terms of service and a number of other places. But it's not enough apparently.

And there's a huge financial incentive for these bodies to go after large companies. In the US a lot of the fine goes back to the prosecuting body.

For instance, in 2013 JP Morgan paid a $13 billion settlements, $7bn of which was distributed to various government authorities, including the prosecuting agencies.

https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/where-does-jpmorgans...