Massive Fine for Blocking Pro-Kremlin Media
Tech titan Google has found itself on the receiving end of a staggering 2 undecillion ruble fine, equivalent to a whopping $2.5 decillion, handed down by a Russian court. The colossal penalty comes after the Silicon Valley behemoth refused to reinstate the YouTube accounts of pro-government and state-controlled media outlets in Russia, according to an anonymous source familiar with the court rulings who spoke to the RBC news website on Tuesday.
Daily Penalties Snowball into Unfathomable Sum
RBC’s sources revealed that Google’s financial woes began accumulating back in 2020 when pro-Kremlin media companies Tsargrad and RIA FAN filed lawsuits against the tech giant for blocking their YouTube channels. The court slapped Google with daily penalties of 100,000 rubles, which have been doubling each week. This snowball effect has led to the current astronomical fine of around 2 undecillion rubles.
To put this number into perspective, an undecillion is equal to the digit 1 followed by a mind-bending 36 zeros, or one trillion trillion trillions. Despite Google’s parent company Alphabet reporting a mammoth revenue exceeding $307 billion in 2023, even they are unlikely to ever cough up this incredibly high fine as it dwarfs the total amount of money in existence on our planet.
Legal Claims Pile Up from Russian Media Giants
RBC’s source disclosed that a staggering total of 17 Russian TV channels have filed legal claims against Google. This roster includes heavy hitters such as the state-run Channel One, military-affiliated Zvezda broadcaster, and a company representing RT’s editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.
The dispute intensified after Google’s YouTube platform blocked several Russian state-run media for their backing of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Moscow retaliated with fines but stopped short of completely blocking the video-sharing website.
Kremlin Calls Fine “Symbolic” Despite Unpronounceable Sum
On Thursday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the gargantuan fine against Google as “symbolic” in a daily press briefing, to The Moscow Times. “Although it is a concretely formulated sum, I cannot even pronounce this number,” Peskov admitted. “Rather it is filled with symbolism.”
Peskov urged Google’s management to take notice and rectify the situation, emphasizing that complying with the court’s decision is the best course of action for the tech giant.
Google’s Russian Arm Declared Bankrupt amid Ongoing Disputes
Google’s Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 2022 and was officially declared bankrupt last fall. The move came after Alphabet Inc’s Google halted advertising in Russia to comply with Western sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.
According to Moscow-based lawyer Ivan Morozov, who spoke to state-run news agency TASS, Google’s failure to restore the blocked Russian media accounts on YouTube, as ordered by a Russian court, and a further failure to pay the fine within nine months of ruling, has resulted in the fine regularly doubling over the years with no cap on the total. Morozov did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment.
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Fine Dwarfs Global GDP and Google’s Market Value
At the current exchange rate, the 2 undecillion ruble fine equates to about $20.6 decillion, a figure followed by an astonishing 33 zeros. To contextualize the enormity of this amount, the world’s GDP stands at approximately $100 trillion, a mere fraction of the imposed fine.
Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, described the fine as “clearly insane” and “absurd” in a message to Business Insider. “So even if Google gave Russia everything the world produced this year, every day since the universe began, it would only have paid about 3% of this fine,” Gould-Davies illustrated on X (formerly Twitter).
Google Addresses Legal Matters in Earnings Reports
Despite the ongoing legal battles, Google’s parent company Alphabet appears unfazed by the potential impact. The tech giant has consistently referred to these cases in its quarterly earnings reports, with the first mention appearing in Q1 of 2022.
In its most recent Q2 2024 earnings report released on Tuesday, Alphabet acknowledged “ongoing legal matters” related to Russia. The report mentioned civil judgments that include “compounding penalties” imposed “in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts,” including those of individuals on sanctions lists.
Alphabet maintained its stance, stating, “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect,” aligning with assessments from previous reports”.
The Road Ahead for Google in Russia
With Google’s current stock market value standing at $2.14 trillion, it’s highly unlikely the company will be paying the astronomical fine anytime soon. However, the case continues to be a point of contention, as Google has yet to comply with the court’s order to restore the blocked accounts.
Russian media outlets have sought to enforce the court’s decision in other countries, including Turkey, Hungary, Spain, and South Africa, further complicating matters for the tech giant.
As this legal battle unfolds, the global business community and tech industry will be closely watching to see how Google navigates this unprecedented situation and its potential implications for the company’s operations and reputation worldwide.
