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- Payment structure: Russian authorities collected 13 billion rubles in fines from Google
Payment structure: Russian authorities collected 13 billion rubles in fines from Google
The authorities have collected more than 13 billion rubles in fines from Google for non-compliance with the legislation of the Russian Federation. Their total amount, according to Roskomnadzor protocols, is 32.8 billion rubles, Izvestia learned. In addition, the American company owes creditors more than 50 billion rubles. And this is not taking into account the huge penalty for blocking accounts of Russian TV channels. The Russian subsidiary of the American company has a small amount of property left, the value of which, according to the results of the inventory, is about 30 million rubles. Whether creditors will be able to return their funds is in the Izvestia article.
How much Google owes Russia
Since 2021, the Federal Bailiff Service of Russia has collected 13.4 billion rubles from Google LLC (a Russian subsidiary of Google), which is 40% of the total amount of fines for violating Russian law, the press service of Roskomnadzor told Izvestia. The total amount of penalties imposed on Google LLC is 32.8 billion rubles. Of these, 19.5 billion rubles have not been paid, the department added.
Thus, the FSSP recovered two revolving fines imposed in 2021 and 2023 in full: more than 7.2 billion rubles and more than 4.6 billion rubles, respectively, and more than 1.5 billion rubles were recovered from a fine of more than 21 billion rubles imposed in 2022, the department noted.
The company voluntarily paid fines of only 6 million rubles in 2021 and 6 million in 2022.
To date, Roskomnadzor has not conducted any dialogue with the company, they concluded. Google demonstrates systematic disregard for Russian law, which is confirmed by the selective payment of fines, according to State Duma Deputy Anton Nemkin. Such tactics undermine the company's credibility and call into question its willingness to conduct honest business in Russia, he noted.
Izvestia sent a request to the American corporation.
The prospects for Google LLC to pay the remaining part of the fines directly depend on the decision of the head office and the availability of available funds that can be sent to Russia without violating sanctions legislation, explained David Kononov, head of the Anti-Crisis and Bankruptcy practice at Lemchik, Krupsky and Partners law firm, who is familiar with the course of the trial.
— The bankruptcy procedure itself implies repayment of debts to certain creditors, fines imposed on Google LLC can formally be repaid only within the limits of available funds in Russia. If the company does not have significant assets, then the actual execution of the remaining penalties remains in question," he said.
The lawyer noted that, according to the results of the inventory, a small amount of property worth about 30 million rubles was found in the Russian "daughter". Obviously, this will not be enough to repay the register of creditors' claims, which amounts to more than 50 billion rubles. And this is not counting the huge fines for blocking accounts of Russian TV channels.
Since Google's departure from Russia in 2022, the company has accumulated significant debts for the enforcement of lawsuits. The largest of them was filed by Russian TV channels (Rossiya 1, Channel One, Zvezda, and others), whose accounts were blocked on YouTube. According to the original court decision, the American corporation had to unblock accounts, and for non-compliance, a fine of 100,000 rubles was imposed for each day of non-compliance with the decision, subject to a weekly doubling of the penalty. As a result, by mid—February 2025, the amount of Google's fine for this lawsuit alone reached 2.86 duodecillion rubles, a figure with 39 zeros.
Will lenders be able to get money from Google
Several law firms unanimously agree that creditors will be able to receive their money only through the procedure of subsidiary liability, when the debt of a legal entity is collected from third parties associated with it. It occurs when the debtor himself cannot meet his debts.
— With the bankruptcy of the Russian subsidiary, the possibilities to recover debt from the global structure are limited: The court may try to hold Google LLC vicariously liable. However, in this case, the process will be complicated by international barriers and corporate isolation," said David Kononov.
The lawyer said that currently the bankruptcy trustee of the Russian subsidiary is trying to increase the amount of funds to pay debts to creditors, including through challenging transactions with Google International LLC.
For example, a Russian court found unlawful the payment of about 9.5 billion rubles in dividends to Google LLC, a subsidiary of Google LLC, in 2021, and the payment of 500 million rubles in taxes. In turn, the American parent company appealed to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation with a complaint and a petition for a review of the decisions. This case is still being considered, he added.
Sofya Simakova, head of the Judicial Protection Department at the Akadem Law Center, said that penalties and penalties for non-payment of debts and fines would not be accrued, since the court had fixed them as of 2023, when the Russian subsidiary was declared bankrupt.
According to her, today the subsidiary's property is used to pay current payments, which include the amounts of accrued interest. The property is critically small to repay all claims, the lawyer stressed, so the issue can only be resolved through subsidiary liability.
In general, the chances of the Russian subsidiary fully paying the remaining fines can be called quite insignificant, Yaroslav Shitsle, head of the It &Ip Dispute Resolution department at the law firm Rustam Kurmaev and Partners, told Izvestia. In his opinion, debt collection from the parent company, even through the procedure of subsidiary liability, is also unlikely in the context of geopolitical tensions.
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