SAP, the German software giant, has agreed to pay a fine in the US for violating sanctions imposed by the country on conducting business in Iran. It’ll pay over $8 million in fines after admitting to handling thousands of exports of its software to Iran violating US law.

Details:

• SAP admitted to exporting US-origin software to Iran beginning in 2010 up until 2017. The exports including delivering software upgrades and patches more than 20,000 times to Iranian users and offering Iranian users access to US-based cloud services.

• As charged, executives at SAP were aware that the company didn’t have geolocation protections to block downloads of its US-origin software in Iran and turned a blind eye to the situation. 

• SAP was also charged with neglecting to put in place adequate export control for cloud services made by some US-based companies that it acquired and integrated into its software suite.

• For the charges, SAP admitted guilt and reached a Non-Prosecution Agreement with the US Justice Department. It’s agreed to pay combined penalties of $8 million and enact auditory measures to ensure compliance with US export laws and regulations.

• As part of its settlement, SAP agreed to a three-year probationary period wherein it’ll submit audit reports of compliance with US export and sanctions laws to the country’s Commerce Department.

• The US has had various economic and trade sanctions against Iran tracing back to 1979. The sanctions are part of diplomatic fights between both countries in response to Iran’s nuclear program and support for organizations considered terrorist by the US. 

• An $8 million fine definitely won’t hurt SAP, which reported a profit of $5.9 billion in 2020 alone.

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