Leaving the fee uncapped creates an incentive for business to put zero effort into making the reporting process efficient. That way, they can demonstrate that

Leaving the fee uncapped creates an incentive for business to put zero effort into making the reporting process efficient. That way, they can demonstrate that compliance requires 5 skilled hours (for example) and "reasonably" charge $250 per report. Courts rule on the evidence provided. If a user challenges the fee, the company can easily document where every penny went, and therefore claim it is a reasonable charge. The user's only real recourse would be to prove that company is over-billing, but that would require evidence. Pegging the cost to a set number of labor hours by law signals to companies that part of the cost of collecting this data is they must develop their internal systems in a way that they can quickly and easily comply with requests.