US imposes $300mn penalty on Seagate over Huawei shipments

The US government has imposed a $300 million penalty on Seagate Technology for violating US export control laws by shipping hard disk drives to Huawei Technologies, a Chinese telecommunications company that is on the US government's entity list.

The penalty was announced by the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) on Monday. According to the BIS, Seagate shipped around 160 shipments of hard disk drives to Huawei between 2010 and 2015, despite knowing that the products were destined for Huawei's subsidiaries in Iran.

The BIS said that Seagate's actions violated the Export Administration Regulations (EAR), which prohibit the export, re-export, or transfer of certain items to certain countries, entities, and individuals without a license from the US government.

"Seagate's actions were clearly unacceptable, and this penalty reflects the seriousness of the violations," said Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo in a statement. "We will continue to work with our partners to enforce US export control laws and protect our national security."

The penalty is the latest in a series of actions taken by the US government against Huawei and its suppliers. In 2019, the US government added Huawei to its entity list, citing national security concerns. The move effectively banned US companies from doing business with Huawei without a license from the US government.

Since then, the US government has taken a number of steps to restrict Huawei's access to US technology and products. In May 2020, the US Department of Commerce announced new rules that would require foreign companies that use US technology to obtain a license before selling certain products to Huawei.

Seagate has not yet commented on the penalty.

https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/us-imposes-300mn-penalty-on-seagate-over-huawei-shipments

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