Google LLC has abandoned its claims to the TV channels "Spas" and Russia Today

Google LLC has dropped its demands to ban Russian media from conducting legal proceedings in foreign courts to enforce Russian court decisions on the recovery of fines from Google Group companies. This was reported on September 30 by Vedomosti with reference to the decision of the District Court of the Northern District of California.

It is noted that this is the first victory in the cases of "Mass media against Google" in a US court.

The agreement confirmed that Google had no grounds to apply to an American court, which was due to the initial position of the Russian media about the lack of competence of the American court, said Artur Zurabyan, partner at Art De Lex Law Firm, representing the interests of Russian channels. According to him, such a decision is absolutely unprecedented.

According to Vedomosti, it follows from the published decision that Google's waiver of the requirements for the Spas TV channel takes effect immediately, and for RT after obtaining an OFAC license (Office for Foreign Investment Control of the US Treasury), since the channel is under US sanctions.

At the same time, Zubaryan notes, even if the license is refused, there are no prospects for a positive outcome for the American company, taking into account the approved agreement. The procedure for obtaining a license does not stop the course of lawsuits that RT has initiated in foreign jurisdictions, the lawyer said.

The representative of the TV channels also said that ANO TV-News and the Orthodox Television Foundation (owner of the Spas channel) consider such an agreement as "the first step towards a global settlement of the dispute with the American corporation as a whole, including the issue of unblocking channels massively blocked by Google after 2022, payment of a court penalty, and paying the debt to Google's bankrupt Russian subsidiary for the purposes of settling accounts with creditors."

On January 4, Google Ireland Limited applied to a California court to ban Google LLC, its bankruptcy trustee and its representatives from participating in the bankruptcy case being considered by the Moscow Arbitration Court. The court then decided to take preliminary temporary restrictive measures without summoning the parties.

At the end of August 2024, the first hearing was held in an American court on the company's lawsuit against RT, Spas and Tsargrad demanding the introduction of anti-search bans due to the decision of Russian authorities to unblock their YouTube channels (the service belongs to Google). The execution of the Russian court's decision "would violate the principles of due process," The Telegraph newspaper quoted the American corporation's statement of claim on August 20, 2024.

Google sought a court ruling (anti-enforcement claims) that would prevent foreign companies from making claims against corporations outside the United States and Britain in the future. The lawsuit initiated by an American company in California is aimed at blocking the activity of Russian companies in foreign jurisdictions where court decisions are currently being enforced, the lawyer said.

Russian media have already appealed to the courts of Turkey, Hungary, Spain, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria, Serbia, Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, etc. by recognizing and enforcing his Russian court decisions against Google companies abroad after the lawsuits against Google in Russia were satisfied and he was declared bankrupt. Zurabyan previously said that the Americans' actions may be due to the fact that Google's parent company, Alphabet (an organization deemed undesirable in the Russian Federation), has long failed to reflect information about lawsuits that put its assets abroad at risk in its public reports.

In early December 2024, the NGO Orthodox Television Foundation, which owns the Spas TV channel, submitted a complaint to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) A statement accusing Alphabet of failing to fulfill its obligations to disclose information in the framework of public reporting. Google's parent company, according to the Russian NGO, does not comply with the disclosure rules of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq, and also does not comply with the SEC reporting rules.

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