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It may seem significant to us mortals, however the fine is less than 1% of their revenue in 2014.

No one wants to lose 100M, no one.

No one wants to lose $1000, no one.

If you can make 200M and have a risk of paying 100M in the worst case you still make 100M more than you would without doing it. So it's basically calculated risk for these companies.

Sure, but you would still prefer to never pay the 100M.

ofcourse and they won't. Companies never pay the initial fine...

Not more than you would prefer to make the 200MM and risk losing 100MM of it.

again calculated risk, if theres even a chance that they walk away with all 200mm, and no chance that they end up with 0 or less, then it's worth pursuing.

I'm trying to say that they would have preferred to not get caught.

And therein lies the problem with most methods of government regulation. The worst that happens is usually a fine. Certain violations need to start carrying mandatory jail sentences.

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