this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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[–] Rottcodd@lemmy.world 105 points 5 months ago (4 children)

So basically the corporate equivalent of slipping a traffic cop a $100, then him conveniently deciding that you're free to go.

[–] psvrh@lemmy.ca 47 points 5 months ago

More like seventy five cents, given Google's profit margins.

[–] hedgehog@ttrpg.network 28 points 5 months ago (1 children)

It’s more like paying the ticket without ever showing up in court. And at least where I live, I can do that.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 19 points 5 months ago (2 children)

More like saying to the judge "What's the max you can charge me? Alright, here's the money, let's skip the court bullshit." in this case.

[–] underisk@lemmy.ml 5 points 5 months ago (1 children)
[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

Just pointing out that it's extremely different from trying to bribe a cop.

[–] Rottcodd@lemmy.world -4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Mm... no. It's really not.

The specific point of all of this was that Google wanted to avoid a jury trial, and the specific reason that they wanted to avoid a jury trial is because a jury trial is much more likely to end up with a much bigger judgment against them. A judge in a bench trial will follow established precedent to arrive at a reasonable penalty, while a jury can and often will essentially arbitrarily decide that they should be fined eleventy bajillion dollars for being assholes.

So their goal with this payment was pretty much exactly the same as the goal of the motorist who slips a traffic cop a bribe to get out of a ticket - to entice someone with immediate cash in order to avoid potentially having to pay much more somewhere down the line.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Except it's not a bribe. It's entirely above-board, the money they're paying is a fine. They're not "getting out of a ticket", they're paying the ticket.

[–] catloaf@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Except they also don't get points on their license, or whatever is analogous here.

[–] Kecessa@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 months ago

They paid what the jury could have imposed and now they're skipping right ahead to facing the judge, they're actually saving the system some time and money.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 1 points 5 months ago

The trial is still going to happen.

[–] Caligvla@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

One has to wonder why corporations are fined such low amounts, in a just world these big corps would be fined in the tens of billions at the lowest.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 months ago

Because the low amount is the just amount minus what they paid to the people making decisions.