17 Russian TV channels are demanding a total of 2 undecillion (an undecillion is a unit followed by 36 zeros) rubles from Google due to the blocking of their accounts on the YouTube video hosting service.
This amount of the fine was considered at a meeting of the Russian court on October 28. This was reported by the Russian agency RBC, citing informed sources.
The Russian court imposed this fine on Google due to the fact that the company did not comply with the requirement to update the accounts of Russian media on YouTube (the video hosting site is owned by Google), the publication notes.
The TV channels “Zvezda”, “Channel One”, VGTRK (TV channels “Russia 1”, “Russia 24” and others), “Parliamentary Television”, “Moscow Media”, “TV-Center”, NTV are victims as third parties in the case. , “GPM Entertainment Television”, “Public Television of Russia”, “TV Channel 360”, “TRK Petersburg”, “Orthodox Television Foundation”, “National Sports Channel”, “Technological Company Center”, as well as IP Simonyan M. S., representing the YouTube channel of Russian propagandist Margarita Simonyan.
The lawsuits against Russian media companies from Google began in 2020 after YouTube blocked the accounts of the Tsargrad TV channel and RIA FAN “due to violations of legislation on sanctions and trade rules” – the owners of these resources have been under US sanctions since 2014).
Subsequently, including with the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the accounts of all Russian state channels were blocked.
For all these claims, the Russian court previously ordered Google to restore media accounts on YouTube, and in case of failure to comply with the requirements, to collect a penalty.
If the court decision is not executed within nine months from the date of entry into force, a fine of 100 thousand rubles will be assessed for each day of non-compliance. The amount doubles weekly until the decision is enforced, without limiting the total amount of the fine, the publication notes. — Another participant in the process said that in September the total fine was about 13 decilions (one followed by 33 zeros).
Source: RBC
Source: Racurs
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