As you may know, the American legislative system is very strong in keeping pace with the change of business. There are many laws that support the society and I’m introducing you the Export Control laws which I have a chance to get familiar to during working Knowledge Transfer in my project.
This law is from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), a part of U.S. Department of Commerce, intending to help protect the US and its allies by keeping goods, technologies out of the hands of countries who might misuse them. It is very important that you should understand these laws before proceeding with export transactions from the US. Actually, there are a lot of companies which have been violating and fines for export violations can reach up to $1 million per violation in criminal cases.
Before exporting, you have to get a license from BIS (http://www.bis.doc.gov). You should able to answer the following questions:
1. What is being exported?
2. Where is the item being exported?
3. Where is the item being exported?
4. How will the item be used?
The following cases are extracted from the document named An Introduction to U.S. Export Control Law
1. Export License Requirements
Roper Scientific, Inc.
The Violation: Between March 13, 2000 and August 24, 2000, Roper Scientific, Inc. knowingly exported certain night vision cameras without the required export licenses from BIS. These cameras were exported to various destinations, including South Korea, Japan, and Italy. Roper also failed to retain certain export control documents and made false statements on a Shipper's Export Declaration.
The Penalty: Roper agreed to pay a $422,000 administrative penalty.
2. License Conditions
To minimize the potential diversion or misuse of licensed exports, BIS adds conditions to nearly all export licenses. License conditions may, among other things, restrict the way an item is used after export, or it may require certain reports to be made by the exporter.
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
The Violation: Sun Microsystems of Santa Clara, California failed to comply with the terms and conditions of BIS licenses that were granted to Sun for the export of high performance computers by not filing copies of certain documents with BIS after the exports occurred. Additionally, Sun exported computers to military end-users in the PRC and Egypt without the required BIS licenses and altered a document responsive to a subpoena, among other violations.
The Penalty: Sun Microsystems agreed to pay a $269,000 administrative penalty and to a one year denial of its export privileges. The denial of export privileges was suspended.
3. Deemed Exports
Most people think of an export as the shipment of a commodity from inside the United States to a foreign country, but this is only one type of export. Under the EAR, the release of technology or source code to a foreign national, even if the foreign national is in the United States, is also "deemed" to be an export to the home country or countries of the foreign national and may require a license under the EAR.
Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc.
The Violation: Between 1996 and 2000, Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc. engaged in conduct prohibited by the EAR by employing foreign nationals from the PRC and Ukraine to conduct research on the development and manufacturing of commercial digital fiber-optic transmission and broadband switching equipment, software and technology without the required BIS licenses.
The Penalty: Fujitsu agreed to pay a $125,000 administrative penalty.
There are other categories and you can get the details on BIS website.
4. State Sponsors of Terrorism
5. Transshipment and Re-exports
6. Freight Forwarder
7. "Catch-All" Controls
8. Denial of Export Privileges
9. False Statement/Misrepresentation of Fact
10. Antiboycott Violations
11. Successor Liability
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