Following a case filed by 17 Russian TV stations whose YouTube accounts were disabled due to international sanctions, a Russian court imposed a staggering fine of $20 decillion—yes, that’s a 20 followed by 33 zeros—on Google.
To put that sum in its proper context, it’s a huge fine that exceeds the whole wealth on Earth by an overwhelming margin.
The origins of the case trace back to 2020, when Google-owned YouTube took action against Tsargrad TV, a Russian ultra-nationalist channel, blocking its account after its owner was targeted by U.S. sanctions.
Pro-Kremlin stations involved in the case apparently include Russia 1 and the platform belonging to Russia Today broadcaster and Putin mouthpiece Margarita Simonyan.
As tensions between Russia and the West escalated, more Russian broadcasters joined the lawsuit in 2022, following the platform’s sweeping restrictions on Russian media accounts after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to reports by Daily Mail and other sources, the ruling imposed a daily fine of 100,000 Rubles (around $1,025) that was set to double each week—a mechanism that has compounded the penalty to its current astronomical amount.
Compound interest means it now stands at $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
According to the World Bank, world GDP is roughly $100 trillion, or $100,000,000,000,000. The market capitalization of Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is 2% of that, or $2,000,000,000,000.
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However, it is highly unlikely that Google will pay the record fine. The corporation essentially exited Russia in 2022, with its local unit going bankrupt as geopolitical tensions rose.
Google who declared $88 billion in revenue in Q3 of this year acknowledged the ongoing legal struggle with Russia but minimized the potential financial damage.
“We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse effect,” the technology giant assured investors.