That's a pretty standard part of settlements, and very nearly semantically void. The more salient facts for someone who's looking to this as an instructive sto

That's a pretty standard part of settlements, and very nearly semantically void. The more salient facts for someone who's looking to this as an instructive story are: they advised a company to do some things that had some pretty hefty consequences, those consequences came back to bite them, and it cost them $573M plus legal fees and damaged reputation. $573M is $573M, regardless of whether a court orders you to pay it, or whether it's the amount you're paying to avoid having to find out how much the court would order you to pay. The fact that no ruling went onto the books is small consolation.