Russia fines Google 20 decillion dollars

Russia has ordered Google to pay an eye-watering amount of money after the tech giant blocked YouTube channels.

Russia has ordered Google to cough up more money than exists in the entire world in response to the internet giant blocking Russian YouTube channels.

The bizarre fines were issued by a Russian court this week, which ruled the US tech giant owed 17 Russian media outlets the unlikely amount two undecillion roubles, or a two followed by 36 zeros.

That equates to $US20 decillion, or $US20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.

That’s a touch more than the company’s $US2 trillion value or its $US306 billion in annual revenue.

According to the World Bank, the total annual gross domestic product of the planet is about $US105 trillion.

Google blocked Russian YouTube channels following the invasion of Ukraine. Picture: Josh Edelson/AFP

The ruling came amid a four-year court case that started in 2020 after YouTube banned ultranationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in response to US sanctions.

After Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, YouTube banned more Russian channels including state broadcasters Sputnik and RT.

The penalty, described by the judge on Monday as “a case in which there are many, many zeros”, according to local outlet RBC, has soared to comical levels because the fines are ongoing and rapidly increasing due to compound interest.

The court had previously imposed a fine of 100 thousand roubles ($US1025) per day that YouTube failed to restore the channels.

“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,” lawyer Ivan Morozov told state-owned news agency TASS. “The court ordered the company to restore these channels.”

The Kremlin said on Thursday that the huge fines were largely symbolic and designed to spur the internet giant into lifting restrictions on Russian YouTube channels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: Mikhail Sinitsyn/POOL/AFP

“I can’t even pronounce this number, but it is more likely imbued with symbolism,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

“Google should not restrict the actions of our broadcasters, but it does. This should be a reason for Google’s management to pay attention to this and correct the situation.”

Since launching its Ukraine offensive, Russia has levied huge fines on social media companies accused of hosting Kremlin-critical or pro-Ukraine content.

Google’s Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy in 2022 and its local bank accounts were seized.

The company no longer offers its commercial services such as advertising in the country but YouTube is still available in Russia.

However authorities have repeatedly threatened to take it offline over its bans on state-owned Russian content.

Some Russian media companies have appealed to overseas courts including in Turkey, Hungary, Spain and South Africa attempting to enforce court decisions made against Google in Russia, RBC reports.

Google in turn has filed lawsuits in US and UK courts against the owners of RT, Tsargrad and Spas seeking rulings that would prohibit the channels initiating legal proceedings outside of Russia.

Google’s parent company Alphabet does not appear concerned it will be forced to cough up.

“We have ongoing legal matters relating to Russia,” it said in its most recent quarterly report.

“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. We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”

— with AFP