A Russian court has ruled that Google owes Russian media stations about $20 million in fines for blocking their content, and the fines could increase.
To put this in perspective, the World Bank estimates global GDP at $100 trillion, which is a pittance compared to the expected fine. Google will therefore have to find more money than it has on the ground to pay Moscow, but on Tuesday it fell slightly below that level when it reported quarterly revenue of $88 billion.
The bizarre sum was calculated after a four-year lawsuit that began after YouTube banned Russian ultranationalist channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to US sanctions imposed on its owner. After Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, more channels were added to the banned list and 17 stations are now filing a lawsuit against the chocolate factory, including Zvezda (a TV channel owned by Putin’s Defense Ministry), according to local media.
Lawyer Ivan Morozov told the state media agency TASS: “A Russian court summoned Google to administrative liability under Article 13.41 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels.”
The court imposed a fine of 100,000 rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. Because of compound interest (Einstein’s eighth wonder of the world), Google is now on the hook for an insane amount of money, or what the judge on Monday called “a case where there are many, many zeros.”
Not that there’s much chance of Alphabet going bankrupt due to this issue. Google in Russia has been inactive since 2022 after the search giant effectively withdrew from the country following Putin’s special military operation. Google says Russian authorities confiscated its bank accounts and that the branch was essentially bankrupt. The advertising publisher had more than 200 employees in Russia, and while some were transferred, others were laid off.
The battle is now taking place in courts around the world as Russia seeks to seize Google’s assets, with little success. The chocolate factory certainly sounds optimistic on the subject.
“We have ongoing legal matters related to Russia,” Alphabet said in its latest earnings statement. “For example, civil judgments involving double penalties have been imposed in connection with disputes related to the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties.” [PDF].
“We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse impact.”
Google had no comment on the fine at the time of publication. ®
