Final answer:
The calculation of fines for an unfair trade practice law violation is not provided; instead, an explanation is given for a firm's response to a pollution tax, which incentivizes the firm to reduce pollution by 30 pounds when the abatement cost is less than the pollution charge.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question pertains to the fines that a mass producer may face if they have violated an unfair trade practice law. While the specific fine per violation can vary by jurisdiction and the specific law in question, the hypothetical scenario provided deals with pollution charges rather than trade practices. Given the lack of direct information about the fines for unfair trade practices, I will instead explain how a firm responds to a pollution charge.
Imagine a firm faces a pollution tax of $1,000 for every 10 pounds of particulates it emits. To determine how much the firm will pollute and how much it will abate, one must consider the cost of abatement against the tax. For the first 10 pounds, abatement costs $300, which is below the tax, so the firm will abate. For the second 10 pounds, abatement costs $500, still below the tax, leading the firm to abate again. When abatement costs rise to $900 for the third 10 pounds, it is just below the $1,000 tax, so the firm still has an incentive to abate. However, with abatement costs at $1,500 for the fourth 10 pounds, the firm will opt to pay the tax instead, as it's cheaper than abating. In this scenario, the most cost-effective strategy for the firm is to reduce pollution by 30 pounds, where the marginal cost of abating pollution is less than the pollution tax.