WorldECR | EU ruling allows full confiscation of proceeds
The Court of Justice of the European Union (“CJEU”) has ruled that the EU ban on brokering military equipment to Russia allows for the full confiscation of proceeds, even if the goods never enter the EU. The 10 September judgment also confirmed the Court’s power to interpret EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (“CFSP”) decisions that serve as the basis for national sanctions. The case revolves around the Romanian airline Neves 77 Solutions SRL, which brokered a deal involving 32 radio equipment, 20 of which were manufactured in Russia. Neves received nearly 3 million euros in fees for these services from SFTE Spetstechnoexport, despite being warned in 2019 that their brokering activities were prohibited by EU sanctions due to Russia's actions in Ukraine. The Romanian authorities imposed a fine of 30,000 Romanian lei (about 6,000 euros) and confiscated the funds received. The Romanian court sought clarification from the EU Court of Justice whether the ban applied even if the military…