Apple‘s European subsidiary was recently subject to a £390,000 penalty in the UK after it made payments to a Russian streaming platform subject to sanctions.
The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) said Apple Distribution International (ADI) transferred £635,618 to streaming service Okko in two payments made in June and July 2022. At the time, Okko was listed under UK sanctions introduced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
OFSI stated ADI “instructed a UK based bank to make two payments” and “did not cancel these instructions”. The watchdog said the incident stemmed in part from Apple’s reliance on affiliates for payment processing, sanctions screening and due diligence, but stressed responsibility ultimately rests with the company itself.
ADI, which is based in Ireland, voluntarily disclosed the breach in October 2022 after uncovering the transactions, a move which contributed to a reduced penalty. OFSI said it applied a 35 per cent discount to a baseline of £600,000 fine, bringing the final penalty to £390,000.
According to Bloomberg, Apple responded to the fine stating it takes “sanctions compliance extremely seriously”.
Neil Dooley, a lawyer at Quillon Law not involved in the case, told the publication that “whilst there is no suggestion that Apple sought to circumvent sanctions”, the device giant remained “slow to update their payment systems and failed to spot several red flags surrounding the payments”.
Source: Mobile World Live
Image Credit: Apple