A Russian court reportedly imposed a mammoth $2.5 decillion, or two undecillion rubles, fine on Google for allegedly blocking their content on platforms like YouTube. According to local media reports, the fines could get bigger.
Just for the ease of understanding the size of the amount, $2.5 decillion is written as $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 and the number is higher than the entire world's GDP – all countries included. An undecillion is one followed by 36 zeros.
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Google Fined 2,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Rubles By Russia: Here Is Why
As per RBC news, Google started accumulating daily penalties of 100,000 rubles in 2020 after pro-government Russian media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN won lawsuits against the search engine for blocking their YouTube channels. The penalties doubled each week, leading to the overall fine of around 2 undecillion rubles, the Moscow Times reported.
Other party victims in the case were: TV channels Zvezda, Channel One, VGTRK (TV channels Russia 1, Russia 24, etc.), Parliamentary Television, Moscow Media, TV Center, NTV, GPM Entertainment Television, Public Television of Russia, TV Channel 360, TRK Petersburg, Orthodox Television Foundation, National Sports TV Channel, Technological Company Center, and IP Simonyan M.S.
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Lawyer Ivan Morozov told TASS that the court held Google accountable under Article 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code. The court has mandated the company restore these channels. The penalties could escalate indefinitely if not addressed within nine months.
"This case involves many, many zeros," the judge said. On Tuesday, Google reported quarterly revenues of $88 billion. The sum exceeds the global GDP, estimated by the World Bank at around $100 trillion.
What's Next?
For Google, the implications of this fine from Russia are complex. To address it, the tech giant could potentially appeal or negotiate terms. However, it is unlikely that Moscow will get to a mid-point. Failure to settle could result in further compounding penalties, possibly affecting Google’s operations within Russia.