In short, there are bad traders and there are bad pirates. Both sides can abuse their rights and act like pineapple raiders. Myself, I barely punish traders with more than 1-3 million creds, depending on what affiliation they have (I also keep an eye onto what kind ship is obtained), reflecting my character's approach towards X or Y faction.
What I don't like the most is silent traders that are not active at all - or, otherwise, they start to cruise without any word. Some of them even try to shoot away without any word, but... you know what obviously happens.
