- A Russian court docket fined Google for not restoring YouTube accounts linked to Russian TV channels.
- The wonderful is about $20.6 decillion — a determine many orders of magnitude past the world’s GDP.
A authorized dispute between Google and Russia over suspended YouTube accounts has led to a wonderful so giant that it exceeds all the cash on Earth.
Ivan Morozov, a Moscow-based lawyer, informed the state-run TASS newswire {that a} Russian court docket ordered the tech large to revive Russian media accounts on YouTube, a Google-owned firm.
He stated that Google’s failure to take action has resulted in a wonderful that had been often doubling for years.
There isn’t any cap on the full, the lawyer stated.
Morozov, who didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from Business Insider, stated that the cumulative quantity has now reached 2 undecillion rubles — an virtually unfathomable determine.
At the present alternate price, the wonderful is equal to about $20.6 decillion.
A decillion is a determine adopted by 33 zeros — which on this case places the wonderful at $20,604,600,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
To put this into perspective, the world’s GDP is equal to about $105 trillion, a minuscule fraction of the wonderful.
It’s unbelievable that Google may or would pay such an quantity, which RBK, a Russian business-media outlet, says pertains to authorized claims introduced by greater than a dozen Russian TV channels in regards to the suspension of YouTube accounts.
According to court docket filings reviewed by Bloomberg in 2021, Google suspended the accounts to adjust to US sanctions.
Nigel Gould-Davies, senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia on the International Institute for Strategic Studies, informed BI in a message that the dimensions of the wonderful is “clearly insane” and “absurd.”
“So even when Google gave Russia every part the world produced this 12 months, day-after-day for the reason that universe started, it might solely have paid about 3% of this wonderful,” Gould-Davies wrote on X.
He likened it to “placing a lifeless particular person on trial” — apt since Google has no energetic presence in Russia, and little by means of property to assert.
In 2022, Google’s Russian authorized arm, Google LLC, filed for chapter, and authorities seized its financial institution accounts, although free providers proceed to function within the nation.
Google’s mother or father firm, Alphabet, would not appear to suppose it can have a fabric affect.
It has often referred to the instances in its quarterly earnings reviews. Business Insider discovered the primary point out in Q1 of 2022.
In its Q3 2024 earnings report, launched Tuesday, Alphabet wrote of “ongoing authorized issues” referring to Russia.
It referred to civil judgments that embody “compounding penalties” levied “in reference to disputes relating to the termination of accounts,” together with these of individuals on sanctions lists.
“We don’t imagine these ongoing authorized issues may have a fabric adversarial impact,” the report stated — an evaluation in step with prior reviews.
Google has not responded to a request for remark from BI.
