Settlements Without Victim Compensation

Governments sometimes resolve enforcement cases with deals that do not provide direct restitution to the people alleged to have been harmed. Those settlements can instead include corporate fines, injunctive relief, or nonmonetary terms that shift costs away from powerful defendants and leave disadvantaged victims uncompensated. — If becoming routine, such settlements change incentives for corporate wrongdoing, undermine marginalized communities' faith in justice, and reframe what 'successful' enforcement looks like.