Google achieved a significant legal victory on Wednesday as London’s High Court granted an injunction to prevent the enforcement of Russian judgments against the tech giant over the closure

of various Google and YouTube accounts.

Judge Andrew Henshaw issued a permanent anti-enforcement injunction, citing that Google and YouTube's terms and conditions mandate disputes to be settled in English courts. This decision protects the U.S.-based company from potentially crippling penalties imposed by Russian courts.

In his written ruling, Judge Henshaw highlighted an extraordinary claim by Google Russia’s liquidator, who estimated that some of the fines faced by Google could amount to 20 trillion times the global gross domestic product (GDP).

The legal battle originated when Tsargrad TV, a Christian Orthodox channel owned by sanctioned businessman Konstantin Malofeev, sued Google in Russia in 2022. Russian state media outlet RT followed suit with a similar case two years later. A third plaintiff, operating the Spas TV channel, also joined the fray. These entities secured Russian court judgments against Google, imposing "astreinte penalties," which are fines that exponentially increase the longer they remain unpaid.

During a November hearing, Google’s lawyers revealed that some penalties against its Russian subsidiary had reached staggering amounts, including an undecillion roubles—a figure with 36 zeros.

Since late 2023, the three Russian broadcasters have attempted to enforce the judgments in multiple jurisdictions, including Algeria, Egypt, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, and Vietnam.

Google's actions to limit its operations in Russia began in March 2022 following the invasion of Ukraine. The company suspended advertising services for Russian users and restricted monetization of content that it deemed to exploit, dismiss, or condone the war. As part of its response, Google has since blocked over 1,000 YouTube channels, including those associated with state-sponsored news outlets, and removed more than 5.5 million videos.

This injunction represents a critical safeguard for Google, preventing the enforcement of Russian judgments and the imposition of financially catastrophic fines in other jurisdictions. Photo by Bjørn Erik Pedersen, Wikimedia commons.