The article states that the normal fine was tripled due to TWC effectively being in contempt of court. $500/call is reasonable, given that the situation has to

The article states that the normal fine was tripled due to TWC effectively being in contempt of court. $500/call is reasonable, given that the situation has to be taken to court to be resolved - if you're already in the situation where the problem gets to court, a smaller fine is meaningless compared to the time a court case takes and the lawyers fees (and court costs, if you have to pay those). The point of punitive damages is to make it uneconomical to play 'court lottery'. At $2/call, it's not worth anyone's time to take a bad player to court, and the law becomes toothless.