Russia fines Google $20 billion, more than the world's GDP

This is the type of fine that you may want to pay off in installments.

A Russian court has ordered Google to pay an amount so large that even the Kremlin admitted to NBC News on Thursday that it was more of a symbolic gesture than a sum that it soon expects to add to its war funds increased.

The fine is around 20 decillion dollars – 20 followed by 33 zeros – or two undecillion rubles, a 37-digit number.

According to Russian news channel RBC, the fine corresponds to the total amount demanded by 17 Russian television channels and other media companies that were blocked from publishing on YouTube – the tech giant's video platform – as sanctioned supporters of President Vladimir Putin's regime over his invasion of Ukraine.

However, the court that imposed the fine may have to wait a long time for Google to pay.

This number not only exceeds Google's market value of $2 trillion, but is also far larger than the size of the entire global economy, which the International Monetary Fund puts at around $110 trillion – a number with just 13 zeros.

However, at least the penalty is not as high as for a Googol that has 100 zeros. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose the number as the name for the search engine, which they hoped would organize large amounts of information.

“Although it is a specific amount, I can't even name this number, it is rather full of symbolism,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday when asked by NBC News how Google would pay such a large sum.

“The company should not restrict our broadcasters on their platform,” he added at his daily briefing with reporters. “This should be a reason for Google leadership to pay attention and improve the situation.”

The amount the court says Google owes is also increasing.

While the case was first opened in 2020 when Google blocked channels then owned by Wagner Group mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin and oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev, it expanded as YouTube followed up on Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 Channels banned.

The court ordered Google to restore the accounts within nine months, with a fine of 100,000 rubles (around $1,000) for each day after that period. The amount of the fine should be doubled every week for each week of non-compliance, with no limit on the amount, RBC said.

Some of these Russian media outlets have also appealed to courts in Turkey, Hungary, Spain and South Africa to enforce court decisions made against Google in Russia. In June, South Africa's Supreme Court granted a request to seize some of Google's assets in that country.

Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell 1.2% in premarket trading after closing nearly 3% higher on Wednesday as the company reported quarterly results that were well received by investors.

In the “Legal Matters” section of its third-quarter earnings release, Alphabet said: “We have ongoing legal matters related to Russia. For example, we have been subject to civil judgments that result in penalties in connection with account termination disputes, including those of sanctioned parties.”

The company added: “We do not believe these ongoing legal matters will have a material adverse impact.”

Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.