[jonhohle]

My hope would be that even if the slap is laughably small for the current offense, the thread of larger fines for continued action would be a deterrent to keep going.

My limited experience with legal issues at large companies is that once a precedent has been set for legally risky behavior, the organization becomes extremely averse to approaching that behavior again (due to optics, legal complications, etc.). AT&T doesn't strike me as a company that cares all that much about the optics from citizen customers (as opposed to business customers), but being found to be a serial violator, i would hope, would have larger consequence.

[bradknowles]

This is why corporate fines should be based on percentages of global gross revenues, with minimums and no caps.

If your company might get fined and lose 5% of their global gross revenue for being a repeat offender, that’s likely to be a much stronger incentive.

Especially if those fines double in percentage for every repetition of the infraction.