Apple’s Irish unit fined £390,000 for paying a sanctioned Russian firm in 2022, with the UK regulator noting the breach was unintentional

LONDON: The UK government has fined an Apple subsidiary £390,000 for breaching Russian financial sanctions.

The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation imposed the penalty on Ireland-based Apple Distribution International on March 19.

ADI, which handles App Store payments to developers, made two payments totalling almost £635,619 to a sanctioned Russian entity in 2022.

The payments were sent in June and July to Okko, a Russian online video streaming service owned by a company under British sanctions.

OFSI stated that ADI had “neither intent, knowledge nor cause to actually suspect that these payments would be in breach of financial sanctions”.

The regulator added that it found no breach had been made by the parent company, Apple.

In a statement, Apple said it takes “sanctions compliance extremely seriously”.

“After identifying two payments to a developer that days earlier had become affiliated with a sanctioned entity, we promptly and proactively reported our finding to the UK government.”

 The Sun Malaysia