On May 31, 2026, the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) issued guidance clarifying that a license continues to be required under the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) for exports of advanced computing items to entities located in any country, if those entities are headquartered in Country Group D:5 (including China) or Macau, or have “an ultimate parent company” headquartered in Country Group D:5 or Macau. The BIS Guidance was prompted by…
On April 17, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) issued Memorandum M‑26‑11 announcing that there will be no annual inflation adjustment to federal civil monetary penalties (“CMPs”) for the calendar year 2026. (For prior annual CMP adjustments, see our previous blog post available here and here.) The Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (the “Act”) mandates annual adjustments to CMPs across the federal government, including CMPs administered by the Department…
France has taken its first formal step toward implementing Directive (EU) 2024/1226, which requires all EU Member States to criminalise the violation and circumvention of EU restrictive measures. The Directive was adopted to address persistent divergences in national enforcement regimes and to ensure that breaches of EU sanctions are treated consistently as criminal offences across the European Union (EU). The Directive establishes a minimum harmonisation of offences and penalties, covering conduct such as providing funds…
On 9 February 2026, the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (“OFSI”) published updated financial sanctions enforcement and monetary penalties guidance. This guidance introduces several significant changes to OFSI’s civil enforcement framework, including how OFSI assesses and deals with financial sanctions breaches. These updates to OFSI’s enforcement framework follow OFSI’s consultation on improving civil enforcement processes that took place last year. OFSI recently published a Consultation Response on this, accessible here. These reforms are intended…