On Monday, a Russian court slapped Google with an incredibly hefty fine. RBC reports (Russian language) that the court fined Google "2 undecillion roubles" for blocking access to 17 Russian TV channels. That’s a lot of money, even with the Russian rouble currently dragged into the gutter due to the war of aggression in Ukraine. Moreover, RBC sources indicate that until Google restores access, the penalty will continue to grow.
Before delving deeper into the dispute, we feel compelled to look at the astronomical fine that the Russian court has slapped on Google. 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Russian roubles is roughly $20,541,679,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 according to XE’s exchange rate calculator, at the time of writing. Comparing the sums in English, we would say the two undecillion roubles are roughly equivalent to 20.5 decillion, five hundred forty-one nonillion, six hundred seventy-nine octillion U.S. dollars. That's probably worth more than our entire planet, in other words.
Alphabet, Google’s parent entity, might be a wealthy company, but it ‘only’ raked in $174 billion in gross profit in 2023. So, it only seems fair that the Russian court should suggest an alternative easy payment plan. However, the fine could continue to grow. RBC reports that if Google doesn’t cough up the cash within nine months of this ruling, it will have failed to comply with the order, and “a fine of 100,000 roubles will be levied for each day of non-compliance.” Subsequently, the additional fine ramps exponentially, doubling weekly with no upper limit.
The source indicates these stratospheric fines didn’t come without forewarning. Russian media companies began a concerted action against Google in 2020 when sites like the Tsargrad TV channel and RIA FAN were blocked on the social media platform. Google reportedly said the accounts were blocked “due to violations of sanctions legislation and trade rules.” Google LLC (US), Google Ireland, and a representative of Google LLC (Russia) were defendants in this case.
YouTube continued to block Russian channels “After the start of a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022,” notes RBC. At around that time, YouTube channels like Sputnik, NTV, Rossiya 24, RT, all Russian state channels, the channels of the State Television and Radio Fund, Spas, the channels of the news agency Aurora, Duma TV, and others felt the force of the ban hammer.
Google / Alphabet has admitted in investor communications that it has legal problems in Russia, but it isn’t likely to bow to any court pressure emanating from the country. It signaled this by saying that it doesn’t think the Russian legal issues will have any material impact on its business. Interestingly, the source report indicates that Russian pressure is being exerted on “the courts of Turkey, Hungary, Spain, South Africa and other countries.” Meanwhile, Google’s lawyers are whack-a-mole-ing the ability of television channels outside of Russia from initiating legal proceedings for discretionary channel blocking.
