Right, and then if the US parent company orders EU managers to violate EU law, and when the managers refuse, replaces them with EU managers stupid enough to obey an illegal order - then what happens? The new EU managers get arrested and possibly end up in prison. Worse case scenario for the US parent, is the US parent company is (civilly or criminally) prosecuted under EU (or member state) law for giving the illegal order, convicted, and then as punishment, they are deprived of their local assets, including ownership of the subsidiary in question.

The parent company is ultimately at greater risk than the subsidiary-the parent can be deprived of ownership of its subsidiary, there is no equivalent consequence for the subsidiary.