this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2024
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[–] [email protected] 251 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Every cent made is a fine I want to see more of. Anything less is going to be seen as just the cost of doing business and the behavior will continue.

[–] [email protected] 86 points 3 months ago (4 children)

No, it should be 3x revenue, IMO it's not enough to just get that money back, it should cause some hurt on top of it.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Yep! Every tech CEO I've worked with has a mentality of "It's just the cost of doing business." Since if they get fined, it's smaller than the profits they made. Or even better, many don't get fined and it's all profits!

As it stands - companies are punished for following the law.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Interesting too how that "cost of doing business" is basically money they don't receive as opposed to money they actually have to pay

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I partially agree, but 100% of revenue is still a loss. The R&D, employee pay, rent for facilities, and cost of input resources are still negative. 100% of profit would only encourage it still, but 100% of revenue is potentially a pretty strong punishment.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

If it’s imposed 100% of the times they do it

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

I'd be happy with 1.1x, 1.2x revenue. They would loose our on development costs too. The only thing not recouped is any gain in brand recognition etc. Make them send a message to all of their customers, and take ads out informing the public how they broke the law, misled them etc.

[–] Corkyskog 3 points 3 months ago

Because we all know they are only catching the tip of the iceberg anyway

[–] [email protected] 53 points 3 months ago

The article also states the settlement will go to refunding the defrauded customers. This needs to be the standard when prosecuting public harm of a business.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

It has to be more than every cent. That would still incentivize cheating since at worst it is a wash for them. Given they do not come close to getting 100% of offenders, the five needs to be multiples. It's like fare enforcement on subways and light rail. If you skip paying, you'll likely get away with it for a while. But overall, the five will cost you slightly more than if you would have just played by the rules.

[–] [email protected] 102 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The actual fine is total revenue + 100k(roughly another 10%). That seems pitifully low for knowingly and intentionally lying about something people trust their lives to.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 3 months ago (19 children)

On one hand yes, knowingly endangering lives like that could be worth a heftier fine, on the other hand everything made plus ten percent seems like a pretty good fine to use if you want to actually discourage behavior across the board.

[–] Ookami38 38 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Exactly. Fines don't work for corporations or the mega wealthy because they don't have teeth. Pegging the fine to the actual income earned from the crime, and ensuring it's no longer more profitable to just pay the fine and continue doing what you're doing, is like, the only way to continue if we want to use fines as a deterrent.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Pegging the fine against the personal assets of the executives/board responsible for the crime would be more effective.

Fining a corporation just hurts the the employees.

[–] Ookami38 4 points 3 months ago

I mean, that's fair. We can talk specifics, just something to make sure the fine has teeth. How we decide to do that is another topic.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

Yeah, this should be the standard. No fixed penalty amounts, no negotiated settlements. Revenue +10% would be a great standard.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

It is 83% effective, which is below par for what they're offering. But it's probably about as effective as the homemade cloth masks we were using at the beginning of the pandemic.

It more or less does the job. Which is less than you'd expect from a product you're paying for, but still generally okay. This is probably fine for going to the grocery store. It's not good enough if you're working in a hospital.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 3 months ago (1 children)

the proposed settlement against Razer includes a $100,000 civil penalty, plus $1,071,254.33, which the FTC said is equal to the amount of revenue Razer made from the Zephyr

Cool, next do Exxon, OxyContin, Marlboro...

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

Yesssssss. I love revenue-based punishments for these companies!

[–] [email protected] 34 points 3 months ago (9 children)

Why did anyone even look at Razer for a mask?! Beyond stupid

[–] [email protected] 62 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

I'm one of the stupid. During the pandemic, it was a shit time and we didn't know what was killing everybody.

And if that was the case, I wanted to be a cyber ninja.

I didn't buy it though.

[–] xmunk 10 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Had they shipped it with a free vibro-katana they would have had a sale from me.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

you know, you can just order vibrators online

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

But do they have colorful RGB LEDs and shit management software?

No wait, don't answer that, I'm afraid I already know the answer.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

But think of the matching set combo! It might take forever, searching though the available vibrators for that color and style!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

Apparently Razor already uses "Katana" as a brand for PSUs that they sell.

https://www.razer.com/gaming-pc-accessories/razer-katana-chroma

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

I honestly didn't know they even nade them. I saw them at some point and thought when this shit keeps going, i might aswell become a cybergoth with a darth vader voice. But i assumed the hype died when mask mandates losend up

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Prior to seeing this article, I'd have thought that a facemask was something that you couldn't make a gamer version of, but apparently I was wrong.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Once again gamers prove to be the most oppressed people

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

Gamer moment

[–] captain_aggravated 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I seem to remember a time when there were no masks of any kind to be had anywhere. A makerspace I was involved in had a few sewing machines, and a few of those who could sew were making masks out of cloth they had lying around for personal use or sale. They were suddenly in demand.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

I bought masks from a toy company (Playmobil) for my family, because there was literally nothing else available anywhere. They were marketed as alternatives to basic paper masks though, not N95 masks:

https://i.imgur.com/Sbq4oBq.jpeg

The innovation was that you could use tissue paper as filters and reuse the silicone mask after cleaning it. They were uncomfortable and stinky, but functional. We used these for about a month or two, long before any vaccines were available. I suspect that social distancing protected us far more than the masks, but either way, none of us got infected.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Here's the thing tho, if it ACTUALLY met the N95 filtering standard, and looked cool as shit... I'd absolutely buy one.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Ravers want just one thing and it makes me sick

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 months ago

Oooh, now do misappropriated PPE funds.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago

Shoutout to Naomi Wu for going after them hard over this back during the height of the pandemic. Let's not forget about her and the fact that she's been muzzled by China.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 months ago (3 children)

110% seems like it could be a middle ground between actually nuking the company into the ground vs. impose to little of a fine.

They're forced to give every cent back (hopefully that can find its way into actual customers hands instead of the government pissing it away) plus lose an additional 10% of whatever they made that is now a loss on the company financials. Shareholders wouldn't like a loss on their spreadsheets and quickly fire whoever was in charge or sell. It's bad for the business, the stock market, and the economy.

It would quickly train the stock market to deter that kind of behaviour. But we need politicians who are not bought by these companies to be able to pose these strong fines across the board.

10% loss on something on the scale of the likes of what someone like Apple or cough Tesla cough brings in on products would add up very, very quickly. More money back into people's products going back into the economy in the form of more spending anyway, which is good, and more tax revenue that the government might one day learn how to spend efficiently and dilligantly, since the government would keep the 10% loss, I'm sure getting that 110% out of the company takes work, time, and spending anyway.

Capitalism only works with extremely tight regulation. And humans can corrupt that regulation very quickly.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

"However, the proposed settlement against Razer includes a $100,000 civil penalty, plus $1,071,254.33, which the FTC said is equal to the amount of revenue Razer made from the Zephyr and will go toward refunding "defrauded consumers."

Fucking. Yes. The money goes back to the customers. Hopefully, every last cent.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

"go toward" doing some heavy lifting there. Watch them get a few bucks each and the rest goes towards legal fees.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

I don't disagree with your overall argument but, if they're fined 100% of revenue, that's way less than zero profit (because they've still paid to make, distribute, and recall the things).

Fines should, of course, always be more than the profit made. 3x is a good number.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 months ago

Definitely had that on my bingo card.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Good for you America. Its usually the UE pursuing this kind of corporate bullshit, but i must admit is good to see a case where the fine equals the full amount of revenue scammed. It should be twice, or x10 times more if u ask, and even jail time for those responsible because that still feels too cheap for playing with people lives and fear, but its something.

Who would have tought we only needed a global pandemic and thousands of deaths to start getting (some) our shit together

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

So many piss-poor masks were sold during the pandemic.

Poundland still have them for sale, and they're marketed as "fashion masks" to avoid any legal trouble.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

if only wall street fines from the SEC were like this...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I could potentially see a market for these for shy streamers if they put a mic inside so you could use it while you game.

Otherwise, why?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

googles

It looks like they were originally going to have a mic, then dropped it. It apparently has ventillation fans, a battery....and looking at its box, apparently Bluetooth support, though damned if I know what they use Bluetooth support for on a facemask.

EDIT: Ah.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/21/22726468/razer-zephyr-face-mask-available-features-design-safety

The Zephyr can be operated entirely by its built-in buttons, but it also supports Bluetooth connectivity to control its RGB lights via the Zephyr app for Android and iOS.

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