Google bankruptcy defendants ask Moscow court to exclude fines from liability claim

Defendants in the bankruptcy case of Russia's Google LLC asked a Moscow court on October 16 to exclude administrative fines and court-imposed penalties from the amount sought from them under secondary liability, an RBC courtroom correspondent reported.

The case has seven defendants: Google LLC, Google International LLC, Google Ireland Limited and four former executives of the Russian company. They include former chief executive Yulia Solovyova and former finance director Yulia Ramazanova.

Bankruptcy administrator Valery Talyarovsky filed the secondary liability claim in October 2024. He seeks payment of the Russian company's debts from the assets of people and entities that controlled it. The company was declared bankrupt in autumn 2023.

According to RBC, more than 21 billion rubles in fines are included in a creditor register totaling about 22 billion rubles. The claims entered through Russia's Federal Tax Service and concern turnover-based fines imposed by communications regulator Roskomnadzor for failing to remove prohibited content.

The defendants' representatives argued that fines are punitive rather than compensation for creditor losses. They asked the court to apply to administrative fines the Constitutional Court's 2023 position excluding corporate tax penalties from the secondary liability of controlling persons.

They also cited a May 28, 2026 ruling by the Moscow District Commercial Court, which they said applied the same approach to an antitrust fine in another bankruptcy case.

Excluding public-law claims would leave 1.5 billion rubles in ordinary creditor claims, a representative of one defendant told the hearing.