The amount of this fine was decided on the basis of the very high number of people concerned (over 7.8 million people having seen the advertisements in question in their inboxes), as well as the company’s market position as France’s leading telecommunications operator. The restricted committee also took into account the financial advantage derived from the breach relating to advertisements inserted among emails.
How long has this been going on, and how much money have they made?
Yeah, I would additionally like to see fines be in units of revenue — $50M means wildly different things to different organizations.