Six months after Google France, it is Google Belgium’s turn to be targeted by a 110 million euro freeze requested by Google Russia.
On Tuesday June 2, 2026 around 3:00 p.m., a bailiff served Google Belgium with a precautionary seizure relating to assets amounting to 110 million euros. Immediately applicable, this decision is part of a legal action by Google Russia against its parent company, Google International LLC.
This precautionary seizure takes place almost six months after the same procedure initiated against Google France. It finds its origins in four Russian court decisions handed down in 2024. These condemned Google International for the organized bankruptcy of its Russian subsidiary, in the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war. They order the parent company to return dividends extracted from Russia and to fulfill the corresponding tax obligations, for an amount of 110 million euros.
According to Russian courts, Google International LLC received more than 100 million euros in dividends from its Russian subsidiary at the end of 2021 before entering into insolvency. The courts found that these operations violated commercial law and bankruptcy law and that they had caused harm to the employees, suppliers and partners of the subsidiary.
France, Belgium… Google Russia increases its chances in Europe
This seizure aims to preserve the availability of assets while awaiting a decision from the Belgian courts. In the same way as in France, Google Russia has in fact initiated exequatur proceedings before the Belgian courts so that they can enforce the Russian judgments. In international law, an exequatur is a decision by which a court makes a foreign judgment enforceable on its national territory. As in France, a bailiff can carry out such a seizure without prior judicial authorization when it is based on enforceable foreign decisions.
In France, the precautionary seizure took place last December. Google Russia is still awaiting the judgment of the Paris court. It will soon have to decide whether it recognizes and authorizes the execution of Russian judgments on French territory. If the exequatur is confirmed, the frozen sums may be seized for the benefit of Google Russia. In Belgium, the judge will rule in 2026, estimates Michael de Boeck, the lawyer in charge of the case.
For Google Russia, replicating this action in Belgium increases its chances of recovering the funds demanded by Russian justice. “It’s a significant sum that is requested: 110 million euros, that’s not nothing. However, a Google subsidiary does not necessarily hold such a sum. There is therefore a need to act wherever it is possible to find assets, and to enforce the Russian judgment on these assets. And for my part, I think that it is logical to enforce the judgment in countries where there are assets”, observes the lawyer. After France and Belgium, the other European subsidiaries of Google International are therefore not protected from such seizures, if the law of their country allows it.
