Further to our earlier post reporting on the UK’s investigation into Airbus, HMRC has today issued a Notice to Exporters that Airbus Operations Limited (AOL) has entered into a compound settlement with HMRC under which it will pay a fine of £6,409,388 for offences under The Export Control Order 2008.
This is the largest fine imposed by HMRC under the compound settlement regime, and is another example of the new practice of sometimes naming companies that enter into such settlements.
The offences do not relate to sanctions but to the UK’s strategic export controls regime.
The breaches took place “over a sustained period” before November 2022 and were self-reported by AOL which cooperated with the investigation and has implemented remediation.
The breaches are described in only general terms as follows:
- Article 29(2)(a-g) on multiple occasions for failing to keep accurate records of transfers of controlled technology as per the conditions of three of their Open General Export Licences (OGELs)
- Article 29(3) on multiple occasions for failing to keep registers in relation to their OGELs
- Article 29(2)(i) on multiple occasions for failing to keep accurate records contrary to the conditions of one of their OGELs
- a Standard Individual Export Licence (SIEL) on one occasion, relating to a failure of licence conditions