Yes, the fine is quite small for WFC and a fine of 18 billion dollars definitely would get their attention. It's still something WFC could survive (it's about a year's worth of profits), and totally different from putting WFC into bankruptcy.

I'm not convinced you can compare personal law and corporate law. The fact that it's a fixed fine in personal law, regardless of income/wealth doesn't seem fair. Also, if you want to extend the analogy maybe it would be more appropriate to take 20% of profits? 20% of revenue it much easier for Apple to stomach than Walmart, because of higher margins. But then what do you do with companies that don't make a profit...