The Perils of Conflicting Economic Sanctions for Multinational Companies natlawreview.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from natlawreview.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
When a jurisdiction’s laws apply extraterritorially or regimes conflict, companies are left wrestling with whether to proceed with certain transactions. This is particularly true in relation to the economic sanctions regimes in the European Union and the United States.
The European Union Blocking Statute was originally adopted in 1996 to counteract US sanctions on Cuba, Iran and Libya, but following a memorandum of understanding entered into between.
The Situation: The EU Blocking Statute prohibits EU operators from complying with certain U.S. sanctions, creating a Catch-22 for EU operators facing two directly opposing legal.
Wednesday, May 26, 2021
In May 2018 the United States announced the reinstitution of sanctions against Iran that had previously been lifted pursuant to the Joint Comprehensive Plan Action (“JCPOA”).[1]
The U.S. sanctions on Iran that were revived by the U.S. action in 2018 include many that apply extraterritorially. Moreover, U.S. law allows the government to impose sanctions on non-U.S. persons (such as European companies) if the U.S. Treasury Department makes a finding that the non-U.S. person has provided goods or services in support of a Specially Designated National of Iran (such as Bank Melli Iran).
In November 2018 the German branch of Bank Melli Iran was notified by Telekom Deutschland GmbH that it was terminating its contract for telecommunication services to the Bank. Bank Melli responded to the termination by filing a lawsuit in Germany,