No it doesn't. They have an annual budget for investigations. Fines go to the treasury and are spent frivelously by the executive branch within the limits set by congress.Were you really damaged by this? The fines pay for the legal & technical investigation done by the government.
The only way there is symmetry is if the money goes to users via their walled garden supplier, Apple, who will use it far more productively. As demonstrated by past results.
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Here's a case where the fines and costs were a couple of orders of magnitude in excess of the damages.
Michael Milken
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Milken
"The estimated injury for all counts combined was, by the judge's account, $318,000 and by the U.S. Probation Office's account $685,000.[12]
As part of his plea, Milken agreed to pay $200 million in fines. At the same time, he agreed to a settlement with the SEC in which he paid $400 million to investors who had been hurt by his actions. He also accepted a lifetime ban from any involvement in the securities industry. In a related civil lawsuit against Drexel he agreed to pay $500 million to Drexel's investors.[13][14] In total this means that he paid $1.1 billion for all lawsuits related to his actions while working at Drexel.
Critics of the government charge that the government indicted Milken's brother Lowell in order to put pressure on Milken to settle, a tactic condemned as unethical by some legal scholars. "I am troubled by - and other scholars are troubled by - the notion of putting relatives on the bargaining table," said Vivian Berger, a professor at Columbia University Law School, in a 1990 interview with the New York Times.[15] As part of the deal, the case against Lowell was dropped. Federal investigators also questioned some of Milken's relatives—including his aging grandfather—about their investments.[6]"
Summary:
the judge's account, $318,000 (fair and legal) and by the U.S. Probation Office's account $685,000 (where do they get the right?)
As part of his plea, Milken agreed to pay $200 million in fines (totally disproportional due to the extortion of the plea bargain-TD)
He also accepted a lifetime ban from any involvement in the securities industry. (TD)
Originally sentenced to 10 years in prison
That is not "equitable".
The FEDGOV treasury was not damaged yet received and kept $200m. None of that was given to victims, real or perceived.
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