Is a vehicle data logger covered by EU/Russia sanctions?

[DiedrichJ]

Hi all,

We're manufacturing and selling simple offline vehicle data loggers, e.g. for recording CAN, Ethernet etc.

Today, we sell our products to an OEM customer in Russia, which we've done for multiple years. The OEM is within the automotive industry, but not working in the industries that are primarily in focus of the sanctions (maritime, defense, space, oil).

However, we are now unsure if our product is covered by the new EU sanctions as of February 26th. We have not been able to get a clear-cut answer from our local authorities and instead we're referred to determine this ourselves from a 40+ page appendix that lists various electronics device specifications (aka Appendix VII) - see page 57 (PDF counter) of below:
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32022R0328&from=EN

We've gone through the appendix many times, but we remain unsure of whether our type of product is covered - hence wanted to check if others have coincidentally reviewed this with similar products and arrived at any clear conclusion?

[KaneTW]

Unfortunately in this situation it's best to send a request for classification. I'm not sure how it works in the EU; in the US there's https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/licensing/commerce-control-list-classification/classification-request-guidelines

Looks like you just have to put in a request (see https://www.bafa.de/DE/Aussenwirtschaft/Ausfuhrkontrolle/Antragsarten/antragsarten_node.html) and it's possible that they'll reply with "no license necessary" ("Nullbescheid"). A "Voranfrage" might be sufficient for this.

[Cerebus]

On top of determining whether you're going to get whacked for unintentional sanctions busting you've go another problem - how are you going to get paid?

The Rouble dived 30% on the money markets this morning, Russian banks in the west are under sanctions, any moment now Russian banks inside Russia are almost certainly going to lose access to electronic funds transfer via Swift, etc. etc. If you have set your prices in Euros your customer is suddenly facing a huge price hike, if they can buy Euros to pay you with, if you set your prices in Roubles you have probably seen most or all of your margin evaporate and still have the headache of converting those funds back into something negotiable.

Time to check your contract for "acts of war" provisions because it may be prudent to back out of it if you can and if you've got another potential market, or if you're not yet fully committed to production.

Viel Glück! I think you're going to need it.

[ebastler]

We've gone through the appendix many times, but we remain unsure of whether our type of product is covered - hence wanted to check if others have coincidentally reviewed this with similar products and arrived at any clear conclusion?

You might have noticed (already in the first few paragraphs of that appendix) that specs matter, e.g. microprocessor clock frequencies and EEPROM storage capacity. So I can't see how anybody could answer your question based on the sparse information you have provided.

I second KaneTW's advice to ask BAFA. Be prepared to give them more information than you gave us, and be prepared for a wait -- I'm afraid you are not the only one who has this type of question right now...

[Benta]

how are you going to get paid?

Best question yet. Briefcase with worthless Rubels at some shady border post? The Amble/LeCarré times are over. But OK, if you're lucky it might be Dollars or Euro.

[nctnico]

how are you going to get paid?

Best question yet. Briefcase with worthless Rubels at some shady border post? The Amble/LeCarré times are over. But OK, if you're lucky it might be Dollars or Euro.

Nobody mentions Bitcoin? 

[Cerebus]

Nobody mentions Bitcoin? 

The only people in Russia who seem to have a lot of that are the ransomware crews who seem to have acquired their own problems at the moment. Some of them are noisy staunch Russian nationalists and some are not. The latter seem to have doxed the former by releasing months of internal chat logs about ongoing scams that have the infosec researchers wetting their pants in excitement.

I don't know if anybody other than myself is ancient enough to remember the days of doing business with the USSR. I didn't myself, but I have known people who did [quite ordinary, legitimate] business with the USSR. The USSR were always short of hard currency, resulting in a lot of deals being paid in barter rather than in hard cash. I seem to remember that the company that made quite a successful business out of selling Russian Fed, Zorki and Zenith cameras in the UK was set up out of necessity when the only economically interesting thing that the USSR had to offer in exchange for goods provided to them in one particular deal was a boat load of cameras and optics.

So, will Russia be going back to barter? Will we see the markets flooded with cheap Russian goods? Is caviar going on sale in Tesco's at bargain prices? 

Mine's the Zil with the disco ball and hot tub full of caviar and blondes.