30.10.2024 16:40
A Russian court imposed a record fine of $20 trillion on Google for shutting down 17 Russian channels on YouTube. The amount of the fine exceeds Google's quarterly revenue, the company's total value, and the size of the global economy. Google had closed its operations in Russia in 2022 due to the war in Ukraine. However, services like YouTube and the search engine are still accessible in Russia. Despite the bankruptcy of its Russian unit, the Kremlin has not yet blocked Google services.
The Russian court imposed a fine on Google that exceeds the total amount of all the money in the world for shutting down some Russian channels on YouTube. The fine was set at 20 decillion dollars.
The lawsuit was filed based on complaints from 17 Russian television channels, including Russia 1 and Russia Today. The court implemented a penalty system that has doubled every week since 2020.
For comparison, Google's quarterly revenue is 88.2 billion dollars, the company's total value is 2 trillion dollars, and the size of the global economy is approximately 100 trillion dollars. The imposed fine is far above all these figures.
Google had closed its operations in Russia in 2022 due to the Ukraine war. Despite the bankruptcy of its Russian unit, services like YouTube and the search engine are still accessible in Russia. Although the Kremlin has banned Twitter and Facebook, it has not yet blocked Google services.
Initially set at 100,000 rubles per day, the fine has reached a 36-digit number due to doubling every day for non-payment. Google states that this fine will not affect the company's operations.