- Don’t bother trying to wrap your mind around this ridiculous number.
Google, or more specifically the search engine’s parent company Alphabet Inc., is in some legal hot water all around the world. The company is accused of monopolizing the search engine market place, using illegal practices in its digital advertising, and so on.
But perhaps the largest lawsuit facing Google comes from Russia, at least if we’re talking about monetary value. Russian courts have slapped Google with a fine it could never hope to pay.
That’s because Google owes Russia more money than there is in the world.
At the root of the issue is Google restricting or blocking Russian television channels’ YouTube account. What began as a relatively mundane court case spun out of control, particularly in the aftermath of Russia invading Ukraine.
After several years, more TV stations filing claims against Google, and cumulative daily penalties, Google’s fine now stands at 1.81 duodecillion rubles.
How Much Money Is in the World?
Now, it’s pretty difficult to calculate how much money there is in the world. After all, not all of it is in cold, hard cash, and the amount will change dramatically depending on what you decide to calculate.
For example, in terms of plain money, that is cash, there is an estimated $80 trillion in existence right now. However, if we start calculating in domestic products, debt, and other less tangible things, we’ll hit a ballpark of $215-$220 trillion.
And then we can add the stocks and the derivatives market. This is where it becomes sort of pointless to try an estimate the amount of money in the world, because some of the value/cash tied to these markets doesn’t actually exist (yet, maybe).
One of the highest estimates for all the monetary value on the planet sits at $1.2 quadrillion. That is, $1.2 followed by 15 zeroes. No, we’re not typing all those out.
How Much is Google’s Fine Actually?
With all that out of the way, we can now look at the actual fine Google is facing right now. As we mentioned, this astronomical sum sits at 1.81 duodecillion Russian rubles.
If you want to, you can type 1.81 and add 39 zeroes after it.
Of course, this is rubles, so the amount won’t be the same in U.S. dollars. Converting these kinds of ridiculous sums isn’t exactly easy, but Russian media has kindly done that job for us.
In American money, Google owes Russia $1.85 undecillion — or $1.85 followed by 37 zeroes.
As you can see, that’s more than twice the zeroes in the total amount of money in the world. But the most hilarious part about this all is that this is not the final bill.
The amount Google is fined increases constantly, with the initial penalty amount doubled and added to the total every week. This means that by the time you’re reading this (and by the time we’re writing this), Google fine will be much, much larger than this.
How Did It Get to This?
Google’s legal issues in Russia began in 2020. That year, Google blocked Tsargard TV and RIA FAN TV channels from YouTube, claiming they were tied to the Russian state.
The TV stations didn’t like that, so they sued Google in the U.S., Ireland, and Russia. In 2021, the Russian courts gave Google nine months to reinstate the YouTube accounts.
They didn’t. So, a daily fine calculator kicked off.
Initially, Google was fined 100,000 rubles a day (a bit above $1,000) until they put the YouTube channels back. This penalty doubles every week without any kind of cap or limit.
Over the years, especially after Russia invaded Ukraine, Google has been kicking more Russian state-affiliated media outlets and public personalities off its platforms. They have, in turn, joined the court case, adding their own claims to the mix.
Today, the case in Russia has 17 claimants. Consequently, the amount Google is expected to pay has grown significantly.
Will Google Pay the Fine?
The next big question you might have is whether Google will ever pay this fine. The answer is, of course not.
How could it? There’s quite literally not enough money in the world to pay this bill.
Additionally, with cases like this, the enforcement of the foreign fine is up to each specific country in which the company is active. Somehow, we don’t see many countries lining up to do that.
If anything, the fine will likely keep growing until such a theoretical point in time where the current sanctions on Russia are lifted and Google attempts to enter the Russian market again. At that point, experts in both Russia and the West believe the company will pay some small fine and that’ll be it.
That said, it would be entertaining to try and see Google scrounge up every last monetary instrument in the world.