LONDON: A Russian court has fined Google a staggering $20 decillion, the largest financial penalty ever issued.
In fact, $20 decillion (20 followed by 33 zeros), which in Russia’s own currency is equivalent to 2 undecillion rubles (a 37-digit figure), far exceeds the combined gross domestic product of every country in the world, which is estimated to be about $110 trillion (a figure with a mere 13 zeros).
The amount dwarfs the $206 billion paid by tobacco companies to the US government in 1998, which remains the largest civil lawsuit settlement.
Google 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. We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect.”
The fine, which a judge said contained “many, many zeros,” relates to a dispute that began in 2020 when Google-owned YouTube banned Tsargrad, a Russian ultra-nationalist, pro-Kremlin channel, from the platform in compliance with US sanctions.
Since then, Google has blocked more than 1,000 YouTube channels and more than 5.5 million videos from Russia, halted advertising services in the country in March 2022, and paused monetization of content that supports Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In response, a number of relatively small fines were imposed by Russian courts but they went unpaid and Russian business newspaper RBC reported that the amounts owed have grown immensely as result of compound penalties initially set at $1,025 a day and doubling each week.
Details of the current total of the fine emerged on Tuesday, as Google reported quarterly earnings of $88.3 billion for the three months to September. Based on that amount, it would take the company more than 56 septillion (a figure with 24 zeros) years to pay off the fine, which is more than 4 trillion times the age of the universe.
Dmitry Peskov, a spokesperson for the Kremlin, urged Google parent company Alphabet to stop blocking Russian YouTube channels. However, he conceded that the massive fine, which he said he cannot even pronounce, is purely symbolic.
“These demands, they simply demonstrate the essence of our channels’ claims against Google,” Peskov said. “Google should not restrict the activities of our broadcasters, but Google is doing this.
“Probably, this (growing fine) should be a reason for Google’s management to take notice and rectify the situation. It’s the best thing the company can do.”
