Russia's Supreme Court Upholds $1.2 Quintillion Fine Against Google

Russia's Supreme Court upholds astronomical fine

Russia's Supreme Court has upheld a ruling ordering Google to pay 91.5 quintillion rubles, a sum equivalent to roughly $1.2 quintillion. The court rejected an appeal from Google International LLC, letting the penalty stand.

For perspective, the World Bank estimates total global GDP at about $100 trillion. This fine is roughly one million times larger than the entire value of the world's economy.

The penalty's explosive growth

The Moscow Arbitration Court set the final penalty in spring 2025. The staggering amount resulted from a progressive daily fine that compounded over years.

The penalty began at 100,000 rubles (about $1,315) for non-compliance. It then doubled each week that Google failed to restore the accounts, snowballing into the quintillion-figure sum.

Origins in a 2020 lawsuit

The case dates back to 2020. Pro-Kremlin media outlets Tsargrad and RIA FAN sued Google after their YouTube accounts were blocked.

The plaintiffs sued multiple Google entities, including:

• Google LLC
• Google Ireland
• OOO "Google," the Russian subsidiary

Russian courts initially ruled in the media outlets' favor, ordering Google to restore access to the YouTube channels. Google did not comply with that initial ruling, triggering the escalating fines.

A symbolic and unpayable verdict

The fine is functionally unpayable and is widely seen as a symbolic, politically motivated judgment. It underscores the extreme legal pressure on foreign tech companies operating in Russia.

Google's operations in Russia have been severely curtailed since the country's invasion of Ukraine. The company declared bankruptcy in Russia in 2022 after its bank account was seized.

This ruling effectively closes the legal avenue for Google to challenge the fine within the Russian judicial system. The Supreme Court's decision is final.