THE COURT ORDERED GOOGLE TO RETURN MONETIZATION ON YOUTUBE

Another cassation complaint filed by Google representatives to the arbitration of the Moscow District did not find understanding among the judges. We are talking about the claims of Russian television channels whose channels on the YouTube video hosting were blocked in 2022. The District Court only confirmed the correctness of the decisions taken earlier by lower instances.

On November 23, 2022, the Moscow arbitration court ruled on the claim of TV Center (JSC) against three defendants: North American Google LLC, Irish Google Ireland Ltd. and their Russian "daughter" Google LLC (case no. A40-102670/2022). The broadcasters demanded that the partially blocked functionality of the account tvmediacon@gmail.com was unblocked.

The court was asked to oblige the defendant to restore access to the administration of the channel, including the possibility of its display and monetization. The Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow fully satisfied the claims of the TV company. As a penalty for non-compliance with the verdict of the court, TV Center asked for payments of 100 thousand rubles daily. In March 2023, the decision of the Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow was on appeal (it was supported by the 9th AAC).

Both instances drew the attention of the defendants to the inadmissibility of unilateral withdrawal from the service agreement. This is exactly the situation that has developed in connection with the TV company's account on the Google service and on the YouTube video hosting. The judges carefully studied the terms of public contracts with users that the companies posted on the Internet, and found no grounds for unilateral rejection of the transaction in the list.

In its Ruling of August 3, 2023, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District drew attention to the fact that economic sanctions of foreign states (in particular the United States and Great Britain) contradict the public policy of Russia and cannot be applied on the territory of the Russian Federation. The judges referred to the Declaration approved on December 21, 1965 by resolution 2131 (XX) at the UN General Assembly.

The cassation considered the termination of Google's contract with TV Center an example of a violation of international legal acts related to the right to disseminate information. At the same time, the influence and widespread use of YouTube was particularly noted.

It is worth noting that earlier the Arbitration Court of the Moscow District has already spoken out on similar complaints related to claims against Google from other Russian TV channels. In several cases (no. A40-74085/2022 and no. A40-110747/2022), the plaintiffs also asked to restore monetization and access to the administration of their accounts on the video hosting. In both cases, the verdict of the court was the same. It remains to recall that Google LLC is currently undergoing bankruptcy proceedings, opened on the initiative of the organization.