A man drives past a panel displaying exchange rates in Moscow, Russia, 9 August 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/SERGEY ILNITSKY
A Russian court has ruled that Google must compensate Russian state TV channels that have been blocked by the tech giant on YouTube to the tune of 2 undecillion rubles, a number with 36 zeros on the end, state-affiliated business news outlet RBC reported on Tuesday.
The court hearing on Monday was the latest in a series of legal challenges brought by a consortium of Russian media outlets ordering Google to restore access to 17 Russian state channels on the video hosting site it owns.
The court had previously ruled that Google would be charged a penalty of 100,000 rubles (€950) for every day access to the TV channels remained blocked. The amount of the fine would then double every week, growing exponentially. A plaintiff in the trial told RBC that as of September, Google’s fine was almost 13 decillion rubles, or 13 followed by 33 zeros.
As Google has continued to block the channels in question, the penalty has now reached 2 undecillion rubles, a source told RBC, a theoretical sum that far exceeds the total value of all assets on Earth.
Some of the more high-profile companies seeking damages from Google are TV channels Zvezda, run by the Defence Ministry, state-owned propaganda mouthpiece Channel One and the pro-Kremlin NTV, owned by energy giant Gazprom.
Google was first taken to court by Russian media companies in 2020 after it blocked access to ultranationalist news outlet Tsargrad TV and the now defunct Internet Research Agency, a propaganda company set up as RIA FAN in 2014 by Wagner Group co-founder Yevgeny Prigozhin. Both companies had come under US sanctions. In 2021 the court found in Tsargrad’s favour and the court-ordered damages have been accruing ever since.
