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Corporate fines and settlements in first four months of 2024
We are just a few months into 2024 and two major corporations have already been slapped with fines of over one billion US dollars . To compile the lists of companies and individuals with the largest fines since the start of 2024 , the team at Tradinpedia gathered enforcement data from multiple federal regulatory agencies , including the Commodity Futures Trading Commission , the Environmental Protection Agency , the Federal Trade Commission , the Department of Justice , the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Securities and Exchange Commission .
They reviewed criminal cases , civil actions and settlements reported in enforcement records and press releases from January 2024 to April 2024 .
Calculations revealed that eight out of the fifteen companies , for which information was available , could settle all of their fines for the year so far with less than a day ’ s revenue . Notably , the tech giant Amazon , which earned $ 1,574,753,425 per day in 2023 , more than any other company we looked at , could clear its $ 34.7M fine within just 32 minutes of operation .
On March 4th , the European Commission hit US tech giant Apple with a $ 1.953 billion , € 1.8B fine for violating competition laws related to music streaming .
The Commission began investigating Apple in 2020 , prompted by a complaint from Spotify , a leading music streaming service provider . The EU ’ s antitrust authority found that Apple had obstructed music streaming app developers from informing iPhone and iPad users about alternative , more cost-effective music subscription services outside the App Store and from providing instructions about subscribing to such offers .
France ’ s competition regulator announced on March 20th it has slapped Google with a $ 271.3 million , € 250M fine for breaking EU intellectual property laws .
The tech giant was found to have breached four out of seven commitments made in June 2022 , including failing to negotiate with media publishers in good faith on how much compensation they would receive for the use of their content .
Additionally , Google did not inform news publishers that it was utilizing their articles to train its AI chatbot Bard , now known as Gemini . The company also didn ’ t provide a way for publishers to opt out , blocking them from possibly negotiating fair payment for the use of their content .
German-based software company SAP SE has agreed to pay over $ 235 million to settle bribery charges following investigations conducted by the Justice Department and the SEC .
The DOJ accused the software giant of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by bribing government officials in Indonesia and South Africa . These bribes , which included cash payments , political contributions , electronic transfers , and the purchase of luxury items during shopping excursions , were aimed at securing business deals .
As part of the three-year deferred prosecution agreement reached on January 10th , SAP will pay a $ 118.8 million criminal penalty and forfeit $ 103,396,765 , with $ 85 million being satisfied through disgorgement as ordered by the SEC . p
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