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GM will pay $146 million in penalties because 5.9 million older vehicles emit excess carbon dioxide (apnews.com)

submitted 1 month ago by BrikoX to c/legalnews

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General Motors will pay nearly $146 million in penalties to the federal government because 5.9 million of its older vehicles don’t comply with emissions and fuel economy standards.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

For context:

The automaker expects its net income for the year will be between $10.1 billion and $11.5 billion, above its previous guidance of $9.8 billion to $11.2 billion. GM's first-quarter 2024 net income was up from last year's $2.4 billion

source

So somewhere around the 1% of their annual profit, not even pocket change. In other words - they've not been given a fine, but rather a pass to continue doing whatever the fuck they want at a nice low cost.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago

Yeah, this is only $24 per illegal car. If the fix costs more than $24, it’s literally cheaper to just ignore the problem and eat the fine.

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

Again, I suggest we change the penalties for these crimes to be triple damages, which is already common for other civil penalties. And we base that number on the company's annual base revenue, not the net income or profit.

If the company moves $55 billion a year that's what the penalties are based on, even if they only profit $500 million. It's the only way to actually make breaking the law no longer profitable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

That would be nice, but sadly it'll never happen (not as long as companies making that much profit, and whose owners therefore wield the kind of power that comes with that, and the system that encourages and enables their existence, exist).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

Hey, as long as the government gets their cut, it's a-okay 👍