A federal judge in San Francisco has held Google in contempt for failing to hand over foreign-stored data the government is seeking as part of a criminal investigation.

But U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg stopped short of granting federal prosecutors the evidentiary hearing they were seeking to probe Google's motives for failing to comply with warrants after the U.S. Court of Appeals for Second Circuit handed down a decision last year finding that Microsoft didn't have to hand over emails stored on servers in Ireland.

Seeborg's contempt order, handed down Thursday less than 24 hours after he heard arguments on the matter, will force Google to pay $10,000 per day for noncompliance beginning seven days after the search giant has exhausted its appellate remedies.

“It is true that at first blush $10,000 per day may seem like a small amount to a company of Google's resources. It is not, however, a meaningless amount. ” Seeborg wrote.

The judge pointed out that the noncompliance in just a single case would cost Google $100,000 after 10 days and roughly $3.6 million after one year. He also noted that, if the U.S. Supreme Court, which recently took up the Microsoft case, were to overturn the Second Circuit, Google will ultimately be subject to similar sanctions for non-compliance with similar warrants across the country.

“The cost to Google of refusing to comply with these warrants will quickly add up,” he wrote.

Google's lead lawyer in the matter, Todd Hinnen of Perkins Coie, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Thursday morning. In a prepared statement, a Google spokesman said, “This was a necessary procedural step to convert the district court's decision into a final appealable order.”

A spokesman for the San Francisco U.S. attorney's office, which is handling the underlying case, didn't immediately respond to messages.