A European Union law holding that entities cannot comply with the requirements in the laws of a third country applies even in the absence of an order to comply with the third country's laws, the European Court of Justice said in a December 2021 judgment. However, an EU company can terminate contracts with a person or entity subject to U.S. sanctions without giving reasons for such termination or without authorization from the European Commission, a summary of the judgment said. But, the European high court said the burden of proof is on the party terminating the contract to show it nixed the contract for a reason other than compliance with the third country laws.

Vietnam will prosecute a case involving goods and currency illegally transported across the Laos-Vietnam border, the state-run CustomsNews reported, according to an unofficial translation. Lao Bao Border Gate Customs Branch authorities inspected a vehicle and found two packages of goods, including $10,000 in cash, and over 1,700 grams of gold and 2,180 grams of silver with a total value of around $132,000. The customs branch transferred the case to Huong Hoa District Police, which will carry out the prosecution.

Vietnam Customs initiated criminal prosecution against a furniture importer for trading banned goods at the Cat Lai Port, the state-run CustomsNews site reported.The 1st zone Sai Gon Seaport Customs Branch started prosecution against Duy Phuong Anh Trading and Forwarding Services Co. for importing used furniture after declaring it new, the report said. The company registered a declaration to bring in 49 items of furniture, but after physical inspection it became clear that the items were used dining tables, display cabinets, clocks, tables and chairs, CustomsNews said. The incorrect declaration violated Vietnamese law for the goods valued at nearly $11,000, the report said. A Duy Phuong Anh spokesperson said that when the company company ordered the goods it didn't know that they were used goods.

The European Union General Court dropped the sanctions listing of former Ukrainian Minister of Revenue and Taxes Oleksandr Viktorovych Klymenko, annulling actions in March maintaining the designation, according to an unofficial translation. The ruling marks the fifth of its kind. The European Council used Ukraine's investigation of Klymenko for the embezzlement of public funds as the basis for the sanctions listing. The General Court, as it has done in the previous four rulings, said that the council hadn't adequately identified that the investigating judge had respected Klymenko's rights of defense or that the proceedings were being carried out in a reasonable time. This decision ends the matter because the Council didn't renew the sanctions listing in September 2021, an action that occurred after Klymenko in April 2021 initiated the latest petition for annulment of his listing.

Aluminum industry trade group European Aluminum, filed two lawsuits with the European Union General Court to challenge the nine-month suspension of the antidumping duties on aluminum flat-rolled products from China, the trade association said in a Dec. 20 press release. The group called the suspension "unjustified" and pointed to the alleged "damaging impact" such a move can have on the European industry. The first case challenges the suspension decision from the European Commission itself, while the second goes after the non-collection of the provisional antidumping duties that were already imposed at the time of the suspension.

The European Council appointed nine judges to the European Union Court of Justice General Court, the council said in a Dec. 21 news release. Six -- Lauri Madise and Iko Nomm of Estonia, Anna Marcoulli and Savvas Papasavvas of Cyprus, and Tuula Pynna and Heikki Kanninen of Finland -- were reappointed for a term running Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2028. Damjan Kukovec of Slovenia was appointed for a tenure running from the date of entry into force of the appointing decision until Aug. 31, 2025; the appointment is part of a phased addition of judges to the General Court that began in September 2019. Ioannis Dimitrakopoulos of Greece and Suzanne Kingston of Ireland were appointed for terms running until Aug. 31, 2022, and Aug. 31, 2025, respectively; the appointments fill unexpired terms of judges who received appointments to the Court of Justice.

The Court of Odense, Denmark, fined bunker fuel supplier Dan-Bunkering over $4.5 million for violating European Union sanctions when it sold 172,000 tons of jet fuel for use in Syria between 2015 and 2017, the EU Sanctions blog reported Dec. 18. The court also fined Dan-Bunkering's parent company, Bunker Holding, over $600,000 and sentenced Bunker Holding's CEO to four months in prison for the sanctions violations. Authorities seized over $2.3 million in profits from Dan-Bunkering. The court said the company intentionally violated the sanctions since it must have known that the Russian military would use the jet fuel in Syria. The sales were made to two Russian entities in 33 transactions.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration ordered Bahrain to pay more than $270 million in legal fees and damages to Iranian state-owned Bank Saderat and Bank Melli, The Washington Post reported. The win for the Iranian banks came after Bahrain's forced closure of Future Bank in 2015, the result of allegations that the institution facilitated money laundering and the evasion of U.S. and U.N. sanctions. A three-arbitrator panel at the court held that Bahrain violated its own banking policies, motivated primarily by a political animus toward Iran. Future Bank, established in Bahrain in 2004 with the backing of the two Iranian banks, was forced to close its doors a few weeks after the Iran nuclear agreement was signed by Iran and the U.S, along with five other world power countries.

The European Union is reopening an antidumping review into tartaric acid from China to comply with the European Court of Justice's Dec. 3 ruling, the European Commission said. The ruling concerned the commission's determination to find the normal value of tartaric acid in the review based on costs of production in Argentina, whereas in the initial investigation, the commission found normal value based on Argentinian domestic sales prices. The result was an increase in the antidumping duty for two exporting producers, Changmao Biochemical Engineering Co. and Ninghai Organic Chemical Factory, who saw their rates jump from 10.1% to 13.1% and 4.7% to 8.3%, respectively.

Vietnam's La Lay Customs Branch is launching legal action involving the illegal smuggling of tracwood, rosewood and chalkstone worth over $165,000, the state-run CustomsNews reported. Vietnamese Customs found the smuggled wood at the La Lay Border Gate in central Vietnam on the border with Laos, after inspecting seven container trucks registered to An Tran Import and Export Co., Ltd. The company was found to have made false declarations on the types of wood on board, some of it rare and precious wood. The report also said that the "containers held nearly 11,000 kg of ice (suspected to be chalkstone) without an import declaration." The legal action follows an interdisciplinary meeting between the Quang Tri Customs Department and the People's Procurary of various provinces, CustomsNews said.