On April 19, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed a $300 million civil penalty against Seagate Technology LLC (California) and Seagate Singapore International Headquarters Pte. Ltd. (Singapore) to resolve alleged violations of U.S. export controls related to selling hard disk drives (HDDs) to Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei) in
On April 19, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued General License (GL) 5K, “Authorizing Certain Transactions Related to the Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. 2020 8.5 Percent Bond on or After July 20, 2023,” which continues to delay U.S. persons’ ability to enforce bondholder rights to the CITGO
On April 17, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) published an Alert warning U.S. persons about possible evasion of the price cap set on Russian-origin oil (see Update of December 5, 2022) and Russian-origin petroleum products (see Update of February 8, 2023) pursuant to Executive
On April 12, 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced further efforts to deny Russia’s access to the international financial system through facilitators and their businesses. For example, OFAC has designated and sanctioned the “facilitation network” of Alisher Burhanovich Usmanov, who had previously been placed on OFAC’s Specially Designated
On April 12, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a Final Rule in which it added 28 entities to the Entity List. The entities are companies located in Armenia , China, Malta, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Uzbekistan. Each was placed on the
On March 30, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security released a series of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding human rights concerns and export controls. The FAQs address BIS’ authority under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to consider human rights concerns when reviewing export license applications, and states that exporters “are expected
In December 2021, the United States, Australia, Denmark and Norway announced the Export Controls and Human Rights Initiative to address export controls and human rights particularly in the area of misuse of certain advanced technologies by authoritarian governments for surveillance and human rights abuses. See Update of December 14, 2021. Since that meeting, the
On March 28, 2023, the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) amended the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to confirm that the foreign policy interest of protecting human rights worldwide is a basis for adding entities to the Entity List. Specifically, this Final Rule amends 15 C.F.R. § 744.11 of the EAR regarding
On March 27, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition by USP Holdings, Inc. and related parties challenging the Trump administration’s Section 232 tariffs on steel imports. The steel importer petitioners had asked the Court to reverse aspects of a June 2022 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (and