Google Wins Injunction From London HC Over YouTube Account Closure

Google Wins Injunction From London HC Over YouTube Account Closure

The US tech giant claimed the fines were to limit access to information and punish compliance

Google has won an injunction from the London High Court to prevent the enforcement of Russian judgments over the closure of its and YouTube accounts.

Granting a permanent anti-enforcement injunction, Judge Andrew Henshaw stated that Google and YouTube's terms and conditions required disputes to be brought to the court in England.

The judge stated that the US tech giant’s Russia liquidator estimated the total of some fines 20 trillion times the world’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Russia’s Tsargrad TV, a Christian Orthodox channel owned by sanctioned businessman Konstantin Malofeev, had sued Google in Russia in 2022. Two years later, the state media outlet RT (formerly Russia Today), filed a similar case.

Another Russian company that operates the TV channel Spas obtained judgments against Google, including ‘astreinte penalties’ that increase every day they are not paid.

In November last, Google’s counsels stated that some of the penalties levied on its Russian subsidiary were undecillion roubles, with 36 zeroes.

Meanwhile, Judge Henshaw said that from late 2023, three channels tried to enforce the Russian judgments against Google in courts in Algeria, Egypt, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and Vietnam.

While praising the court’s ruling, a Google spokesperson expressed, "For years, Russian courts have levied unprecedented fines and arbitrary legal penalties against Google to limit access to information on our services and as punishment for our compliance with international sanctions against Russian individuals and organizations."

In March 2022, Google stopped serving ads to users in Russia. It also paused the monetization of content that it deemed to exploit, dismiss or condone Russia's war in Ukraine.

Over 1,000 YouTube channels, including state-sponsored news, and over 5.5 million videos have been blocked ever since.