The total amount of claims of 17 Russian TV channels to the American corporation Google due to the blocking of accounts on YouTube has increased to ₽2 undecillion (36 zeros in one undecillion). The court ordered the company to restore access, and until it does, the penalty will grow. This is reported by RBC with reference to a source familiar with the course of the trial.
This amount of fine was considered at a meeting of the Russian court yesterday, October 28. Prior to that, the court ordered Google to restore Russian media accounts on the company's video hosting service, and in case of non—fulfillment of the requirements, to pay a penalty. The court's decision had to be executed within nine months from the date of its entry into force. For each day of non-performance, a fine of 100 thousand rubles was charged. The amount is doubled every week until the execution of the court decision. At the same time, there is no limit to the total amount of the fine.
The TV channels Zvezda, Channel One, VGTRK (TV channels Russia 1, Russia 24, etc.), Parliamentary Television, Moscow Media, TV Center, NTV, GPM Entertainment Television, Public Television of Russia are among the victims in the case.", "TV Channel 360", "TRK Petersburg", "Orthodox Television Foundation", "National Sports TV Channel", "Technology Company Center", as well as IP Simonyan M.S., representing the YouTube channel of TV presenter Margarita Simonyan.
Another participant in the process told RBC that in September the total amount of the fine was almost 13 decillions (one with 33 zeros).
The trials of Russian media companies with Google began in 2020 after YouTube blocked the accounts of Tsargrad TV channel and RIA FAN "in connection with violations of sanctions legislation and trade rules" (the owners of these resources have been under US sanctions since the end of 2014). In August 2020, Tsargrad appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a request to cancel the decision on blocking. The defendants were the American Google LLC, the Irish Google Ireland, as well as a representative of the Russian Google LLC. In the spring of 2021, the metropolitan court ordered Google to return Tsargrad access to blocked accounts under the threat of a progressive fine if this decision is not executed.
After the start of a special military operation on In Ukraine, in February 2022, YouTube blocked the accounts of Sputnik, NTV and Rossiya 24, a little later — RT, all Russian state channels, Gosteleradiofond channels, Spas, Aurora news agency channels, Duma TV, regional branches of VGTRK, etc.