Google has been fined in Russia for removing Russian TV channels from YouTube. The size of the penalty, however, swelled to an unprecedented level over the past 4 years, since the court case started in Russia against the tech giant. 

The violations cost the tech giant 2 undecillion rubles or $20 decillion (a 33-digit figure), according to lawyer Ivan Morozov, cited by Russian state news agency TASS. 

To put that into perspective, global GDP reaches an estimated $110 thousand billion (12-digit figure), according to the IMF.

Another expert cited by the Russian news agency, Roman Yankovsky, from the HSE Institute of Education, told TASS that Google “clearly will not pay this penalty, and the Russian Federation will not be able to recover this money from the company.” 

A short calculation shows that he is right. Google’s holding company, Alphabet, has a market capitalisation of slightly more than $2 trillion. Even with earnings of $80.54 billion (€73.96 billion) from the last quarter, the tech giant doesn’t seem to be able to afford to pay the fine. 

Any claims made by the Russian government are only viable domestically. 

British tech newspaper The Register reported that the amount has been calculated after a four-year court case which was triggered by YouTube having banned the ultra-nationalist Russian channel Tsargrad in 2020 in response to the US sanctions imposed on its parent company. 

Google hasn’t replied immediately to Euronews Business’ request for comment.