{"id":567019,"date":"2026-07-30T14:45:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:45:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567019\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T14:45:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T14:45:13","slug":"hmrc-fines-airbus-6-4m-for-breaching-rules-on-export-of-sensitive-technology-airbus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/567019\/","title":{"rendered":"HMRC fines Airbus \u00a36.4m for breaching rules on export of sensitive technology | Airbus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Airbus has been fined \u00a36.4m in the UK after the European aerospace company admitted to breaches of rules designed to stop sensitive goods such as military hardware falling into the wrong hands.<\/p>\n

The company, which sits at the heart of the European defence industry, said it had paid the settlement to the UK\u2019s tax authority, HM Revenue and Customs, after self-reporting breaches that occurred before November 2022.<\/p>\n

HMRC said the offences related to Airbus\u2019s failure to keep records of the export or transfer of controlled technology over a sustained period.<\/p>\n

The UK\u2019s export control licensing regime is designed to prevent strategic goods such as military hardware and items that can be used in weapons of mass destruction programmes from being sold overseas or to sanctioned individuals and countries.<\/p>\n

The \u00a36.4m payment is the highest out-of-court settlement ever reached by HMRC for strategic export offences and more that 10 times higher than the more than \u00a3569,100 that an Aberdeen-based division of the energy company Petrofac paid<\/a> last month for breaching Russia sanctions regulations.<\/p>\n

Airbus cooperated with HMRC\u2019s investigation, but its failure to follow the rules is particularly notable, given the pivotal role it plays in Europe\u2019s defence sector, working on projects including the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet and the A400M heavy cargo aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe UK operates a strict licensing regime \u2026 to ensure military equipment does not fall into the wrong hands,\u201d said the deputy director of HMRC\u2019s fraud investigation service, Edwige Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe use a range of powers to ensure effective controls and enforcement on military goods, which contributes to the UK\u2019s national security. This settlement shows we will not hesitate to take action.\u201d<\/p>\n

HMRC said the breaches included:<\/p>\n

Failing to keep accurate records of transfers of controlled technology as per the conditions of three of their open general xport licences (Ogels).<\/p>\n

Failing to keep registers in relation to Ogels.<\/p>\n

Failing to keep accurate records contrary to the conditions of one of their Ogels.<\/p>\n

A failure of licence conditions on a standard individual export licence (Siel).<\/p>\n

An Ogel is a reusable, pre-approvied licence for multiple shipments of items generally considered low-risk. A Siel is a more detailed permission, requiring government approval for a specific quantity of items going to a single, named end-user.<\/p>\n

The fine was issued to Airbus Operations Limited (AOL), a UK division of Airbus, whose manufacturing headquarters are in Toulouse, France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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In its statement to investors, the company said: \u201cAOL fully cooperated with the investigation and implemented appropriate remediation measures. This settlement closes and fully resolves the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sanctions lawyer Nigel Kushner, who is chief executive of law firm W Legal, said the fine would shake up compliance. \u201cThis is a wake up call for UK exporters. It is not enough to obtain licences or rest on your laurels utilising pre-approved licences available to all.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is critical to comply with the licence terms, in particular record keeping and updating registers. The failure to do so is an offence in itself as Airbus have been reminded to its cost.\u201d<\/p>\n

Airbus agreed to pay a record \u00a33bn in penalties<\/a> in 2020 after admitting it had paid huge bribes on an \u201cendemic\u201d basis to land contracts in 20 countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Airbus has been fined \u00a36.4m in the UK after the European aerospace company admitted to breaches of rules…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[114,85,46],"class_list":["post-567019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}