Google owes Russian TV stations $20 decillion, a Russian court has ruled – more money than exists in all the world.
The fine, which is written as 20 followed by 33 zeroes, levied following complaints by 17 Russian TV channels whose accounts on YouTube were blocked as a result of international sanctions.
The court case started in 2020 after the Google-owned YouTube blocked an accounts for Russian ultra-nationalist station Tsargrad, after its owner fell foul of US sanctions.
Other Russian stations joined the lawsuit in 2022, after YouTube blocked their accounts following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A Russian court ruled that Google had to pay a fine of 100,000 Rubles ($1,025) per day, with the total fine doubling every week.
Compound interest means it now stands at $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
According to the World Bank, global GDP stands at around $100 trillion, or $100,000,000,000,000. The market value of Google's parent company, Alphabet, stands at 2% of that, or $2,000,000,000,000.
Not that Google is likely to be paying Russian fines anytime soon: the US-based company effectively exited Russia in 2022 after the start of the Ukraine war and its Russian subsidiary has since been declared bankrupt.
Google declared $88 billion in revenue in Q3 of this year. While the company’s most recent earnings report acknowledges its ongoing legal dispute in Russia, the company appears fairly nonplussed by the issue.
'We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect,” it told shareholders.