What happened
On July 5, 2024, the Moscow Arbitrazh Court granted the application of the bankruptcy trustee of the Russian company OOO Google to declare the payment of dividends to its parent company, Google International LLC, an invalid transaction. On October 1, 2025, the Supreme Court of South Africa upheld the attachment of Google group assets in South Africa in proceedings for the recognition and enforcement of the Russian court ruling. On December 10, 2025, the Paris Judicial Court also imposed a protective attachment on 100% of the shares of Google France at the request of the trustee of the Russian Google entity, in proceedings for the recognition and enforcement of the Moscow Arbitrazh Court’s ruling on the recovery of the dividends. On June 1, 2026, the Madrid Court of First Instance confirmed its jurisdiction to hear a similar application by the trustee. On June 2, 2026, a court in Belgium granted interim measures in the form of an attachment of the assets of Google Belgium in similar proceedings for the recognition and enforcement of the Russian court ruling.
Why it is notable
A unique series of proceedings in which a Russian bankruptcy trustee seeks to recover assets of a corporate group’s foreign entities on the basis of a Russian court ruling.