Did they make only $8.5mil? I doubt. Why not fine them for their profit? At this point, fines like this are treated as expenses.
“Meta suffered a major defeat on Wednesday that could severely undercut its Facebook and Instagram advertising business after European Union regulators found it had illegally forced users to effectively accept personalized ads.
The decision, including a fine of 390 million euros ($414 million), has the potential to require Meta to make costly changes to its advertising-based business in the European Union, one of its largest markets.”
Even ignoring that it is including a fine, I would think $414 million is large enough for some fairly high-up managers at Meta getting flak for it.
Edit: What's controversial about this statement? It's patently obvious, especially when you factor in the odds that your behavior will go unnoticed or unprosecuted. Do you people think I'm advocating this?!
So this was a toggle in an obscure preferences setting toggled incorrectly and therefore a minor infringement of EU law - but you want the court to fine Apple their entire profit? plus some random extra amount?
Wow. Aside from this being completely stupid to anyone who doesn’t share your irrational level of Apple hatred, how would you deal with a really serious offense?
The problem is that the threatened fine is nowhere near the anticipated profit. So there is a rational incentive to ignore the law.
Read the other comments here and you will see a number of people saying those things should happen (ok maybe not the one about the Wagner group...).