Russian Court Orders Google to Pay Russian TV Stations a Fine of 20 Decillion USD, Equivalent to 33 Zeros Following the Number
With the application of compound interest, a Russian court has ruled that Google must pay a fine amounting to 20 million trillion trillion USD.
Photo: NurPhoto.
According to Euronews, a Russian court recently issued a ruling requiring Google to pay Russian TV stations a fine of 20 decillion USD, or 20 million trillion trillion USD. Written out, this would be the number 20 followed by 33 zeros.
For comparison, the World Bank estimates the current global GDP at around 100 trillion USD, which only has about 12 zeros and pales in comparison to the record-breaking fine imposed on Google.
This means that the search giant would need to earn an amount millions of times the total wealth of all humanity to pay the fine imposed by Moscow. According to its latest revenue report, Google earned just 88 billion USD in the third quarter.
The Register reports that this extraordinary amount stems from a lawsuit that began in 2020 when YouTube banned two channels, Tsargrad TV and RIA FAN, in response to U.S. sanctions on the owners of these channels.
After the Ukraine conflict erupted in 2022, more channels were added to the banned list, prompting a wave of lawsuits from 17 Russian TV channels, including Channel One and Zvezda, affiliated with the Russian military.
“Google was ordered by a Russian court to assume administrative responsibility under Article 13.41 of the Administrative Offenses Code for removing channels from the YouTube platform. The court ordered the company to restore these channels,” lawyer Ivan Morozov told the TASS news agency.
To explain the unprecedented fine amount, the court applied a penalty of 1,025 USD per day, with the total doubling every week. The compounding interest, combined with Google’s failure to pay since 2020, led to this figure.
However, it is unlikely that Google will pay the fine, as its subsidiary in Russia declared bankruptcy after the authorities seized its bank accounts.
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