well the bribing was done by people. The company is an abstract entity that merely exists as a convenience for doing business and paying taxes. those people who

well the bribing was done by people. The company is an abstract entity that merely exists as a convenience for doing business and paying taxes. those people who did the actual bribing aren't being held liable, instead getting to hide behind the abstract entity for some reason. instead they hold the company liable and say 'just give us our cut and we will have done our jobs and we can shut up about it'. Of course Airbus isn't exactly operating in an ideal market and europe needs to do everything to avoid becoming irrelevant in the face of competition from american companies which are funded with military money, but this kind of 'justice' is not exactly what people imagine when they first hear about the concept.