In 2005, the FTC fined the massive credit bureau Experian $950,000 (previous blog) for deceptively marketing subscription credit monitoring services as if they were free, and for taking advantage of new federal free credit report rights to do so. This week, the FTC fined Experian a mere $300,000 more for violations that continued for several months in 2005. Normally, when a bad guy gets caught a second time, the punishment is increased. I'd guess that the FTC bought some sort of weak Experian claim that any continued violations must have been "inadvertent." Regardless, it should have increased the follow-on penalty. Unless companies think that they'll both get caught and get punished severely, they'll look at the risk of getting caught as a mere cost of doing business, not as a deterrent.