The AccountingWeb reports that 'Tough Love' will be used with firms that are unethical.

"Under the PCAOB’s rules, firms will be given 12 months to fix problems that show up in the board inspections. Unless the case is particularly egregious, the firm’s violations will not be made public. If the board is satisfied with the firm’s solution, no further action would be taken. If the fixes are not satisfactory, said McDonough, “Then we have to get very tough.”

Civil penalties may be as high as $750,000 for individual auditors and $15 million for firms, as well as temporary or even permanent suspension from auditing public companies."