On Tuesday, Russian outlet RBC reported that an ongoing Russian court docket case has resulted in a patently absurd high quality towards Google. Within the fruits of a collection of compounding charges courting again to 2020, Google now owes a number of Russian media entities the tidy sum of two undecillion rubles, or roughly $20.6 decillion (2.06 × 10^36), a determine that far exceeds the estimated complete worth of all foreign money, property, and debt on Earth mixed. It is abundantly clear Google will not be paying these fines, however what on the earth is occurring right here?
Google’s Russian authorized troubles started in July 2020, when Google suspended the YouTube account of the Russian Tsargrad TV, in addition to its former chief editor Aleksandr Dugin, described by Radio Free Europe as a “pro-Kremlin analyst.” Google advised RFE on the time that the channels have been suspended for violations of worldwide sanctions and commerce laws.
Tsargrad filed swimsuit within the Moscow Arbitration Court docket, searching for to pressure Google to reinstate the suspended YouTube channels. The next spring, the court docket dominated in favor of Tsargrad, threatening Google with fines if it failed to revive Tsargrad and Dugin’s channels.
It’s reasonably crammed with symbolism.
Google blocked a number of extra Russian media YouTube channels following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) asserted on the time that Google was abusing its dominance in on-line video distribution and fined Google 2 billion rubles after which, citing non-payment, a further 2 billion rubles. Google’s Russian subsidiary filed for chapter in June 2022; the subsidiary was declared bankrupt in late 2023.
However as RBC stories, Russian fines towards Google proceed to develop. The FAS’s 2022 ruling towards Google stipulates that, beginning 90 days after the ruling (starting within the spring of 2022), the corporate will likely be fined a further 100,000 rubles per day, and that the full quantity will double every week with no ceiling. Russian authorities aren’t below any phantasm Google will and even may really pay up; a Kremlin spokesperson advised NBC Information that the most recent determine is “reasonably crammed with symbolism.”
Will Google ever pay its tab?
Google’s $2 trillion market valuation comes nowhere close to the sum of money Russian courts are searching for. Actually, by the broadest estimates, the full worth of all foreign money, property, and debt on Earth totals below $700 trillion — an unfathomably giant determine, however nonetheless solely the tiniest fraction of the roughly $20.6 decillion Google has been fined.
These fines cannot and will not ever be paid, a indisputable fact that each Russian authorities and Google are nicely conscious of. Google acknowledged the continued case in its second quarter monetary report (PDF) earlier this yr; in what was primarily an apart, the report reads that “We don’t imagine these ongoing authorized issues may have a fabric hostile impact.”
This summer time, it was reported that Russia had purposefully restricted entry to YouTube inside the nation in an ongoing effort to crack down on unbiased media. Russian authorities have publicly denied doing so, blaming decreased bandwidth and lack of entry on Google’s infrastructure — an assertion YouTube has denied.
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