this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2025
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Atleast on America that is by law if publicly traded. Let's say a company discovers something that amazing, say cure for cancer and decides they are going to give it out for free for the benefit of mankind. They can be sued and will likely lose. Only real defense would be they thought the goodwill from giving away for free would earn the shareholders more money through goodwill towards the company. A smaller scale version of this would be like a farm raising animals in non-optimal conditions (for profit but nicer to the animals like free-range instead of cages). They could argue the customers will be willing to pay a premium for that.
If not publicly traded they can do whatever they want. If governmental they should have a goal or mission statement that states what their intent is(usually it's not profit) but if it's publically traded legally their only motive is profit to the shareholders.