Russia sues Google for $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

[editor]

Or £15,401,099,999,999,998,000,000,000,000,000,000.00, if you like - around 200 trillion times the amount of money currently on the planet.

And the heinous crime? Google removed 17 Russian TV channels from YouTube following US sanctions in 2020, which have only been expanded since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

What an absolute shit show of a country.

A Russian court has ruled that Google owes Russian media stations around $20 decillion in fines for blocking their content, and the fines could get bigger.

To put that into perspective, the World Bank estimates global GDP as around $100 trillion, which is peanuts compared to the prospective fine. Google would therefore have to find more money than exists on Earth to pay Moscow - but on Tuesday fell a little short of that mark when it posted $88 billion quarterly revenue.

The bizarre amount has been calculated after a four-year court case that started after YouTube banned the ultra-nationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to the US sanctions imposed against its owner. Following Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine in 2022 more channels were added to the banned list and 17 stations are now suing the Chocolate Factory, including Zvezda (a TV channel owned by Putin's Ministry of Defence), according to local media.

"Google was called by a Russian court to administrative liability under Art. 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels on the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels," lawyer Ivan Morozov told state media outlet TASS.


The court imposed a fine of 100 thousand rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week. Owing to compound interest (Einstein's eighth wonder of the world), Google is now on the hook for an insane amount of money, or what the judge on Monday called “a case in which there are many, many zeros.”

Russian court fines Google $2 decillion

Don't hold your breath Putin

www.theregister.com

 

[two sheds]

hard but fair I think

 

[cupid_stunt]

They were having a right laugh about this, this morning on Sky News.

 

[klang]

for a moment I thought it was £15,401,099,999,999,998,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.00, but glad it turned out to be just £15,401,099,999,999,998,000,000,000,000,000,000.00.

 

[furluxor]

I know that Russia is not a functioning democracy but this sort of blatant puppetry using the judicial system still hurts somehow.

 

[A380]

Once the afternoon rolls round there will be a few posters popping up to explain why Putin was more than entitled to do this and why, fundamentally, it’s NATO’s fault…

 

[skyscraper101]

Google should countersue for reputational damage or something equally spurious.

Maybe a nice cool.... * checks what's highter than a decillion *.... $1 UNDECILLION DOLLARS

 

[danny la rouge]

Once the afternoon rolls round there will be a few posters popping up to explain why Putin was more than entitled to do this and why, fundamentally, it’s NATO’s fault…

And probably yet another example of why Zelenskyy is unpopular in the West.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Missed opportunity. They could have demanded a googol of dollars.

 

[danny la rouge]

Missed opportunity. They could have demanded a googol of dollars.

The fools!

 

[klang]

I think they are as bad as each other tbh; Russia for greedily asking for too much, and Google for not admitting to having done wrong and paying it.

 

[klang]

Missed opportunity. They could have demanded a googol of dollars.

a g000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,g0l

 

[littlebabyjesus]

Google then countersue for a googolplex.

It was all there in front of them.

 

[CNT36]

I hear they may try to settle for £15,401,099,999,999,998,999,999,999,999,999,99.99.

 

[JimW]

Stop a quid a week out your giro.

 

[marty21]

Russia can then just buy every country in the world.

 

[CNT36]

Stop a quid a week out your giro.

I'm not sure more sanctions is the answer...

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

They should pay, put the money in a suitcase in Den Haag with the security situation being only Putin is permitted to pick it up.

 

[marty21]

They should pay, put the money in a suitcase in Den Haag with the security situation being only Putin is permitted to pick it up.

That reminds me of a student trip in the 80s, we were funded by the European Visitor fund (something like that) who gave the refund to one of the lecturers in cash, we rolled up to an office in Brussels , he went in , and came out with an attache case full of cash , which he proceeded to dole out to soon to be very drunken students.

 

[planetgeli]

If google had googled 'grain of rice chessboard' on day one we would never have come to this.

That's NATO's fault.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Accept liability but ask for a payment plan. Dollar a week for, ummm, can't be bothered to write how long it is - basically until the end of time.

 

[Gromit]

Pay it in one cent coins.

 

[Nylock]

Essentially, the sun will have swollen to a red giant and consumed the earth before they were even a third of the way through repaying it....

 

[quimcunx]

I suppose it makes a change from companies suing governments when the governments bring in environmental/human rights/whatever policies that restrict the company's god given right to extract a profit no matter what the costs to that country or its people.

 

[King Biscuit Time]

Russia showing strong 'enraged parent continuously doubling down' energy here.

Right - no computer games for FOUR years then!

 

[ID47]

Russia can then just buy every country in the world.

 

[A380]

View attachment 449105

What a fantastic example of where honest hard work can get you…

 

[NoXion]

Accept liability but ask for a payment plan. Dollar a week for, ummm, can't be bothered to write how long it is - basically until the end of time.

At that rate it would be paid off in about 38.4 nonillion years, assuming I've got it right. That would place it some time during the degenerate era of the universe according to current understanding. All the stars at that point would have been dead for an unfathomable length of time, leaving nothing but black holes and other stellar remnants scattered across an otherwise dark and empty universe. Thankfully if protons do eventually decay, then they are estimated to be stable enough to survive for that long. So it's at least conceivable that there could still be someone around to collect.

 

[gentlegreen]

Accept liability but ask for a payment plan. Dollar a week for, ummm, can't be bothered to write how long it is - basically until the end of time.

Now roughly 100 roubles

 

[Elpenor]

Accept liability but ask for a payment plan. Dollar a week for, ummm, can't be bothered to write how long it is - basically until the end of time.

Not long then, as this planets time is up thanks to climate change + global leaders and their lust for nuclear weapons