[denton-scratch]

The law provides for fines to be a percentage of turnover.

A fine as a proportion of profits just reduces your profits by a few percent; as long as your profits are still huge, it doesn't matter, and you pay up. If it's a percentage of turnover, you might well end up with losses for that year, and no profits at all.

The regulation is designed to make your shareholders sit up, and put pressure on the board to come into compliance. It was targeted at turnover rather than profits for obvious reasons - corporate accountants are very good at making profits invisible. And turnover is relatively easy to measure.

[Edit] Changed "revenue" to "turnover" - "revenue" was an alternative fact.