Google wins UK ban on Russian media’s overseas enforcement drive
Google wins UK ban on Russian media’s overseas enforcement drive
In a 22 January judgment, the English High Court has barred three Russian media companies from enforcing multibillion-pound Russian court judgments against Google outside Russia, finding the original proceedings breached English jurisdiction agreements.
‘The judgments which the Defendants seek to enforce abroad are for extravagant, indeed other-worldly, sums of money of a penal nature and bearing no relationship to any measure of compensatory damages,’ Justice Henshaw stated.
The court granted final anti-enforcement injunctions to Google and Google Ireland against NAO Tsargrad Media, TV-Novosti, and NO Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya, who had obtained Russian judgments after their YouTube channels were terminated for compliance with sanctions.
‘Article 248.1 was introduced for the specific purpose of enabling such persons to choose to litigate in the Russian courts even if they have contracted to litigate or arbitrate elsewhere,’ the judge noted, finding Google had ‘reasonably believed’ seeking earlier anti-suit relief would have been futile.
The Russian judgments led to seizure of over £51.2 million in Google Russia assets. Recent attempts to enforce abroad were ‘exorbitant,’ the judgment found, with claimed penalties reaching ‘£1,850,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,’ which the court noted ‘is about 20 trillion times greater than the estimated GDP of all the economies in the world.’
