>so that companies will think about it twice before pulling similar stunts in the future //
Is that how it will pan out though. I'd imagine it's more likely to be that Lenovo get away with paying a little of their profits out in the class action but still overall profit from the whole deal. Then companies will be encouraged to do so long as when they factor in the cost of the lawsuit they still come out on top.
IMO penalties should be such that a company doing this sort of thing makes no profit and is at a very real risk of having to be liquidated if they already weren't making a profit. For large companies the payout should be measured in $100 millions as that's the only sort of level of fine that will be noticed.
Directors in charge of that section that authorised or actioned the activity should be barred from being directors again and where appropriate face criminal charges. In Lenovos case if they can ever afford to do this again and if the controlling elements (or those who should have exercised control according to the org chart) aren't prosecuted under eg CFAA then the punishment will be too small.
Is that how it will pan out though. I'd imagine it's more likely to be that Lenovo get away with paying a little of their profits out in the class action but still overall profit from the whole deal. Then companies will be encouraged to do so long as when they factor in the cost of the lawsuit they still come out on top.
IMO penalties should be such that a company doing this sort of thing makes no profit and is at a very real risk of having to be liquidated if they already weren't making a profit. For large companies the payout should be measured in $100 millions as that's the only sort of level of fine that will be noticed.
Directors in charge of that section that authorised or actioned the activity should be barred from being directors again and where appropriate face criminal charges. In Lenovos case if they can ever afford to do this again and if the controlling elements (or those who should have exercised control according to the org chart) aren't prosecuted under eg CFAA then the punishment will be too small.