In terms of the principle of the thing, just as we would go back and try to penalize a company that over the years has built up its fortune by polluting a piece of ground, we're basically invoking the principle that one day or another the polluters have to pay, even if they didn't recognize at the time that's what they were doing, because the result of that activity was their wealth.
Pour revenir au principe de la chose, nous n'hésiterions pas à pénaliser une entreprise qui, au fil des ans, s'est enrichie en polluant des terrains.