VW paid "$14.7 billion to settle civil charges in the United States" and was ordered "to pay a $2.8 billion criminal fine for 'rigging diesel-powered vehicles to cheat on government emissions tests'."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_emissions_scandal

"Seems low" and "cost of doing business" - paraphrasing any thread about US company. Could also says "VW should be sued out of existence".

Also I genuinely think those fines were low.

The fact that it did not seem to stunt their growth speaks for itself:

https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VWAGY/volkswagen-a...

European companies get fined the same as any other companies.

Well within the constraints they set out which exclude a hell of a lot of European companies.

(I am in Europe for reference, this is not an external perspective)

https://www.enforcementtracker.com/?insights shows breakdown by country, type, industry sector. "Highest fines: individual" top 10 list is all international companies (Meta, Amazon, TikTok, LinkedIn, Uber) and those make the news. Smaller European companies hardly make the news.

What constraints? And which companies are excluded by them?