While the attachment of Google's trademarks in South Africa is the first real consequence the internet giant has suffered in its court battles against various Russian applicants - among them the Russian Orthodox Church and Russia Today - the applicants have now gone one step further by lodging a complaint against Google with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Sandton-based lawyer Vasco De Oliveiro, who is representing Google in the South African leg of the multinational battle, “respectfully” declined to comment.
Lawyer Artur Zurabyan, the instructing attorney from the Moscow law firm Art De Lex, told TimesLIVE they are still waiting on “any form of acknowledgment” from the SEC.
“We lodged our complaint online on November 11 and after two weeks, on November 28, we lodged a supplementary complaint. The SEC still hasn't replied to us or even acknowledged our complaint,” Zurabayan said.
“Our formal complaint is about the parent company of Google LLC, namely Alphabet, and its non- compliance with its reporting obligations to its shareholders in its financial statements regarding the litigation in South Africa and also similar litigation in other countries for the enforcement of the Russian court order,” Zurabayan said.
Except for South Africa, Google is fighting the same battle in eight other countries.
“The other countries are the UK, Hungary, Vietnam, Turkiye, Algeria, Spain, the Kurdish Republic and Egypt.”
Google's parent company is their main target.
“Alphabet is a listed company on inter alia the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market. Being involved in lawsuits in nine countries is something you would expect the company to mention in their financial statements to their shareholders.”
TimesLIVE sent emails asking for confirmation of the lodging of the complaint to the SEC, its chairperson Gary Gensler as well as the four commissioners listed on their website - Hester Peirce, Caroline Crenshaw, Mark Uyeda and Jaime Lizárraga.
Two auto-replies landed - one each from Gensler and Lizárraga. No further communication was received from the NEC by the time of going to press.
Zurabyan is frustrated.
“We find this strange. In other matters you can follow the complaints from shortly after it was lodged until completion. With our complaint there is only silence.”
Their complaint stems from court battles in various countries between Google LLC and the Orthodox Television Fund, known as No Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya.
No Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya operates the Russian media company Spas.
The court found in our favour and an order was issued that the channels must be reinstated, which included a penalty for non-compliance, whereby Google will be responsible for fines for every day that they fail to comply with the Russian order.
— Lawyer Artur Zurabyan,
On March 13 2023 No Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya obtained a civil judgment in the Moscow Arbitrazh Court against the Russian subsidiary of Google LLC for money lost after its YouTube channel was shut down by Google.
“The court found in our favour and an order was issued that the channels must be reinstated, which included a penalty for noncompliance, whereby Google will be responsible for fines for every day that they fail to comply with the Russian order,” Zurabyan said.
Google appealed the Russian court's decision but on June 22 the Ninth Arbitrazh Court of Appeal dismissed their application.
A month later (in July 2023) Google LLC was declared bankrupt by the Russian courts.
The fines the applicants are asking for, which double every week, can reach a staggering number of zeros should the world's courts decide in favour of No Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya.
“It amounts to 100,000 roubles [R17,792] per day that double every week. This is about R4m in rand for every nine months of noncompliance.”
Zurabyan said, the ceiling is far, far higher than the nine monthly R4m.
“We are talking a lot of money but the applicants know there is a ceiling on their financial claims. We can only ask the courts for the value Google LLC is capitalised at and that is about $3bn [R55.24bn],” Zurabyan said.
After the so-called “special military operation” when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Google stopped selling online advertising in Russia and, among other things, shut down the church’s YouTube channel while keeping some free services available.
An intelligence source with an eye on Geopolitics who did not want to be named, told the Sunday Times this week it was Google's “choice to block propaganda in a time of war”.
“We must remember the Russian special operation is just Slavic for invasion. Most of the western world is opposed to what is going on in Ukraine. Western countries and western companies have the right to decide who they want to do business with and who they do not want to associate with,” the intelligence source said.
Zurabayan disagrees.
“It is a matter of sovereignty. No business in an other country, or even any other country itself has the right to decide what can and cannot be said. One of the pillars the Western world claims to stand on is the concept of freedom of speech. How can they be selective about this?”
In South Africa, lawyer Zané Hartman is appearing for No Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya. She instructed Pretoria advocate Roelof du Plessis on the matter.
TimesLIVE
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.