A Russian court has fined Google 2.5 trillion trillion trillion dollars after the tech giant removed Russian channels from YouTube to block pro-kremlin media outlets.
In dollars, that looks like $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, a 2 followed by 36 zeroes!
Russia out in the media cold
The case began in 2020 when Google imposed restrictions on Russian media outlets, including Russia’s ultra-nationalist channel Tsargrad, reducing access to YouTube.
In May 2021, Russia accused Google of supporting “illegal protest activity” and violating its laws because of the restrictions.
A year later, in July 2022, a Russian court imposed a 21.1bn rouble fine on Google for not restricting access to what it considered “prohibited” material related to the Ukraine war.
The latest fine continues the ongoing case between Google and Russian authorities.
A $20 decillion symbolic fine
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov spoke with reporters about the latest fine, saying:
- “Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels.”
He added Google should not restrict Russian broadcaster’s access to its platforms and Google needs to pay attention:
- “This should be a reason for the Google leadership to pay attention to this and improve the situation.”
Dmitry Peskov told NBC News when it asked him how Google could pay:
- “Although it is a specific amount, I cannot even say this number; it is rather filled with symbolism.”
Doubles by the day
The original ruling stipulated that if Google didn’t pay the fine within nine months, it would double daily, with no eventual limit.
Moscow-based lawyer Ivan Morozov told Russian news agency TASS:
- “The number is growing daily because of penalties incurred due to non-payment.”
Since then, the fine has multiplied by an unprecedented amount and is now more than the global GDP of $110 thousand billion.
Ironically, it’s still considerably less than a googol, the name Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose for their search engine, which is the mathematical number 1 followed by 100 zeroes. However, as the fine infinitely doubles, it could eventually reach it.
Russia can’t recover the money
Although Alphabet, Google’s holding company, is worth $2.06 trillion as of October 2024 and had earnings of $80.54 billion in the last quarter, it can’t afford to pay the colossal fine.
And it doesn’t have to, as the Russian government claims are only domestically viable.
Roman Yankovsky, from the National Research University—Higher School of Economics, told the Russian news channel TASS:
- “Google clearly will not pay this penalty, and the Russian Federation will not be able to recover this money from the company.”
Google’s response
Google is yet to respond to the latest fine, but it acknowledged the ongoing court case in its third-quarter earnings documentation under the title ‘Legal Matters,’ where it said:
- “We have ongoing legal matters relating to Russia. For example, civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties.”
Google added:
- “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”
Google can only return to Russia when it pays the fine, which will unlikely happen anytime soon.
