Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
Last fall, Russia slapped Google with a dizzyingly high fine in response to blocking sanctioned Russian YouTube channels.
While Google already shut down its Russian operations, the company sought legal protections by filing lawsuits in international courts.
This week a UK court has ruled in Google’s favor, blocking enforcement of the fine.
Nobody likes paying fines. But whether we’re talking about getting hit with a fine for littering, or parking where we shouldn’t, having to fork over some of our hard-earned cash is supposed to suck a little bit, because it’s intended to encourage us to change our behavior. At least, that’s the way fines are meant to work, but you wouldn’t know that from the ridiculous stance Russia has taken in response to Google’s actions. This week we finally get an update on a the crazy-high fine we saw the country levy against Google last fall.
The government of Russia butting heads with tech companies is nothing new, but the intensity of these conflicts has only increased in the wake of the nation’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The particular incident surrounding this fine concerns YouTube blocking access to content from certain Russian media groups that Google identified as impacted by sanctions. Not pleased with this response, Russia hit the company with a fine adding up to some 2 undecillion rubles ($2.5 decillion USD).
That is a sum that is just patently absurd on the surface, representing more money than the entire planet’s economy. While there was little chance of Google ever even attempting to pay up, the company still had to make sure it had its legal bases covered, and at the time we noted that it was proactively filing lawsuits in both US and UK courts against the groups holding the channels it blocked. Now, according to Bloomberg, Google just scored a win with its suit in the UK.
As part of an order blocking enforcement of the Russian fine, the judge described the country’s effort as “a coordinated strategy of foreign enforcement.”
Google offered its own statement on the matter:
For years, Russian courts have levied unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal penalties against Google in an attempt to limit access to information on our services and as punishment for our compliance with international sanctions against Russian individuals and organizations.
Despite this victory in the UK, Google’s Russian headache is far from over, and the company still faces legal showdowns over this YouTube block in other venues around the world, including South Africa.
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