Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Last time, Russia fined Google heavily in response to blocking sanctioned Russian YouTube channels.
- While Google has already shut down its Russian operations, the company has sought legal protection by filing a lawsuit in international courts.
- This week a UK court ruled in favor of Google and stayed the enforcement of the fine.
Nobody likes to pay fine. But whether we’re talking about fines for littering, or parking where we shouldn’t, spending some of our hard-earned money can hurt a bit, because Its purpose is to encourage us to change. Our behavior. At least, that’s the way to impose a fine, but you wouldn’t know it from the ridiculous stance Russia has taken in response to Google’s actions. This week we finally got an update crazy-high fine We last saw charges being levied against Google in the country.
The Russian government’s confrontation with tech companies is nothing new, but the intensity of these conflicts has increased following the country’s illegal invasion of Ukraine. The specific incident related to this fine relates to YouTube blocking access to the content of certain Russian media groups that Google deemed affected by the sanctions. Not happy with this response, Russia fined the company approximately 2 million rubles ($2.5 million USD).
This is a sum that is, on the surface, absolutely absurd, representing more wealth than the entire planet’s economy. Although there was little chance that Google would ever even attempt to pay, the company still had to make sure its legal bases were covered, and at the time we noted that it was actively pursuing action against ownership groups. Was filing lawsuits in both US and UK courts. The channels it has blocked. Now, according to bloombergGoogle recently won with its lawsuit in the UK.
As part of the order blocking enforcement of the Russian fines, the judge described the country’s effort as “a coordinated strategy of foreign enforcement.”
Google offered its own statement on the matter:
For years, Russian courts have imposed unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal penalties against Google in an effort to limit access to information on our services and as punishment for our compliance with international sanctions against Russian individuals and organizations.
Despite this win in the UK, Google’s Russia headache is far from over, and the company still faces legal confrontations over this YouTube block in other places around the world, including South Africa.
