Global technology company, Google, has had its assets in South Africa attached following a ruling by the Gauteng division of the High Court over its failure to reinstate a Russian TV station’s YouTube channel.
However, it was not immediately clear what was the monetary value of the attached assets belonging to Google or what type of items fell under the order.
Zané Hartman, director of Johannesburg-based Pagel Schulenburg Attorneys, confirmed yesterday that a high court application was also served electronically on Google LLC in California last week.
“The main application against Google LLC is for the conversion of the foreign civil judgment confirmed by the Ninth Arbitrazh Court of Appeal in Russia,” Hartman said.
“The Russian civil judgment is two-fold: Firstly, it orders the reinstatement of the YouTube channel belonging to the Russian NPO. Secondly, it imposes astreinte.
“What the main application seeks to achieve, is to obtain a court order in South Africa that enforces the Russian judgment here, specifically the astreinte that is being imposed on Google LLC.”
The firm said this would mean that the Russian NPO was entitled to execute the judgment against Google LLC within South African borders in all the ways provided for in terms of the law, meaning a sales in execution of Google LLC’s assets.
Pagel Schulenburg Attorneys represents No Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya, the Orthodox Television Fund which operates a Russian media company known as “Spas” in its application against the Alphabet Group, of which Google is a wholly-owned subsidiary.
The matter dates back to 14 March last year when an award was made by the Moscow Arbitrazh Court against Google LLC, ordering the reinstatement of The Foundation for Orthodox Television NPO’s YouTube Channel, and imposing astreinte - a monetary penalty for failure to reinstate the channel - for each day that Google LLC refused to comply with the order.
“In June last year, the above judgment was taken on appeal to the Ninth Arbitrazh Court of Appeal by Google LLC in Russia. The appeal was dismissed on 22 June. No Fond Pravoslavnogo Televideniya launched an ex parte application in South Africa in December of last year to seek an order allowing edictal citation and substituted service,” Hartman said.
“In March of this year, the order in terms of the ex parte application was granted, which led to the main application being served electronically on Google LLC and the assets of Google LLC being attached by the sheriff at Google’s South African premises.”
According to Pagel, the main application against Google LLC was for the conversion of the foreign civil judgment confirmed by the Ninth Arbitrazh Court of Appeal in Russia.
“Should the main application be successful, this would mean that the Russian NPO was entitled to execute the judgment against Google LLC within South African borders, including executing the money judgment against Google LLC’s assets in South Africa.”
Russian law firm Art De Lex is facilitating similar applications for exequatur processes in 10 other jurisdictions across the world.
Yesterday, in response to a Business Report media enquiry, Google said they were aware of the case and it was still too early to comment, as they were still busy taking legal advice.
The company said it would give a detailed response once it is available.
BUSINESS REPORT