In an unprecedented move that sounds straight out of a dystopian sci-fi movie, a Russian court has slapped Google with a staggering $2.5 decillion fine.
This eye-watering amount - some 2 undecillion rubles, which translates to $2.5 trillion trillion trillion - is the culmination of four years of penalties accrued for allegedly blocking pro-Kremlin content on YouTube, the RBC news website reported Tuesday (October 29).
And to help put that number into context, it looks like this when written out in full: $20,565,635,200,000,003,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Originally, the fine started at a mere 100,000 rubles back in 2020, following successful lawsuits by media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN, which had their YouTube channels restricted, The Independent reports.
However, the penalty has been doubling weekly due to Russian legal stipulations, reaching unearthly proportions.
The saga began intensifying in 2022 when Google took a stand against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, restricting several other media outlets, thus accruing additional fines, as reported by the state-run news site RBC.
In response to the mounting restrictions, including a ban on new Russian user accounts and deactivation of AdSense accounts, Russian authorities seized Google’s bank assets, pushing the tech giant's Russian subsidiary into bankruptcy, per Metro.
Despite these financial upheavals, Google’s free services like YouTube and Google Search are still operational in Russia, but online ads have also not been served to Google users in the country since March 2022.
The company addressed these challenges in its latest quarterly results, stating: "We have ongoing legal matters relating to Russia. For example, civil judgments that include compounding penalties have been imposed upon us in connection with disputes regarding the termination of accounts, including those of sanctioned parties."
Google remains optimistic, however, noting: "We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect."
And that's very likely, as the $2.5 decillion figure, while legally noted, is purely theoretical — exceeding the total value of all assets on Earth.
This sentiment was mirrored in the stock market where Google's parent company, Alphabet, saw its shares climb over 5% in after-market trading on Tuesday after surpassing third-quarter earnings expectations.
