The most expensive fine in the world is so high that the figure is difficult to pronounce and impossible to imagine. It is the one Russia has imposed on Google, and it corresponds to 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 dollars. To simplify, this is equivalent to 20 decillion dollars or 20 million trillion dollars, which is the number 20 followed by 33 zeros. To try to understand the numerical order we are talking about, it is enough to know that the figure is much higher than the world GDP, which the International Monetary Fund estimates to be around 110 trillion dollars. These figures are impossible even for a financial giant like Google, which has an annual turnover of around $300 billion and a market value of around $2 trillion.
Russia fines Google
To explain how such an exorbitant number was arrived at, one has to go back to 2020 when YouTube decided to suspend a number of Russian channels broadcasting propaganda images and videos of the Russian regime. In the face of protests by the Russian authorities in defence of channels such as Ria Fan and Tsargrad, Big G did not retrace its steps, but rather, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, banned other channels guilty of publishing content that, according to the US company itself, denied, minimised or trivialised heavily documented violent events.
Numbers in hand, the penalty initially amounting to 100,000 roubles, corresponding to $1,000, was increased from 2020 onwards after a Russian court had ruled that within the next nine months, Google would have to restore pro-Kremlin channels, including national TV channels such as Russia 1 and Russia 24. A ruling that was never respected by the Mountain View company, which, for this reason, saw the measure increase, with the amount doubling every week. Google never paid a ruble/dollar to the Russian authorities, declaring its Moscow-based subsidiary, Google LLC, bankrupt in 2022.
World’s most expensive fine
Although the search engine and YouTube are still available on Russian territory, Big G has gradually suspended all activities, blocking the possibility of creating new accounts for any person from Russia in recent weeks. In addition, all AdSense accounts, the platform that sells advertisements and enables website owners to earn revenue in relation to Internet traffic, have been deactivated.
Beyond what has happened so far, both sides know that the fine is now a purely symbolic measure with which Russia wants to make its case on its territory. While seeking the support of other countries, such as Turkey and Hungary, to broaden the front of opponents against Big G, everyone knows that no one will ever pay such a fine. This is why Dmitri Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, told NBC that it is ‘an act laden with symbolism, which should make the Google management realise that they should be careful and work together to improve the situation’.
After filing several lawsuits in the US and the UK against the owners of some Russian TV channels involved in the case, Google acknowledged in its latest quarterly financial report the open diatribe with Russia, specifying that it did not consider it a problem that would impact its accounts. Just to reiterate, paying the penalty is not even being considered.
