Let me start off by saying that administrative monetary penalties are not punitive in nature. They're not there to punish. We associate deterrence with being punitive, and this is not what administrative monetary penalties are about. They are about fostering compliance, encouraging compliance with enterprises that are on our radar for particular investigations.
How do we determine the administrative monetary penalties? There are 11 aggravating and mitigating factors that are listed within the confines of the Competition Act. Those can include things like the duration and the scope of the conduct at issue, the gross revenues generated by the conduct at issue, and the vulnerability of the groups of individuals who may be targeted by the conduct that is at issue. History of compliance with the Competition Act will also dictate where on that spectrum someone would fall in terms of the quantum of the administrative monetary penalty. We're also concerned about the financial viability of the company that is the target of our investigation. All of these factors are taken into consideration when we assess what the quantum is. There is also a catch-all provision under which the bureau can consider other factors when assessing the quantum.
I need to explain that administrative monetary penalties in the cases of Avis, Budget, Hertz, Dollar, Thrifty, and Amazon were all the result of negotiated settlements, so they were arrived at through consent agreements. Consent agreements are a form of negotiation in which the parties and the commissioner and the bureau work together to promote compliance with our act. They can be quite effective. We negotiate them, and we work with the parties in order to achieve the public interest. These consent agreements are actually registered with the courts and with the competition tribunal, and they carry the same force of law as a court order.
Also, the administrative monetary penalties can be levied in the context of the courts if there's an application to the competition tribunal, for example. Within the remedies that the tribunal would consider, administrative monetary penalties would be one of the remedies, as would corrective actions, and possibly restitution payments.
We don't just pull these numbers out of the air. We work with the targets of the investigation, and come up with the right quantum that reflects the public interest. Ultimately, if we're able to accomplish it in the context of a consent agreement, we're actually avoiding the costs associated with lengthy, costly, and sometimes uncertain litigation.