Sanctions 2025

NETHERLANDS Law and Practice Contributed by: Sebastiaan Bennink, Nicolas Burnichon, Siqi Zhao and Daniel Webb, Bennink Dunin-Wasowicz

of Amsterdam convicted a company for provid - ing goods and services related to the construction of the Crimean Bridge. The sanctions violation concerned Council Regulation (EU) No 692/2014 of 23 June 2014, which imposes restrictions on the import of goods originating in Crimea or Sevas - topol into the EU, in response to the illegal annexa - tion of Crimea and Sevastopol. The court imposed a fine of EUR120,000 on the company. Additionally, on 19 June 2025, the court ordered the confisca - tion of EUR1,013,956, representing the gross rev - enue derived from the sale of goods and provision of services in breach of the sanctions. • 10 July 2025 Rotterdam case (ECLI:NL:RBROT:2025:8322): The District Court of Rotterdam convicted an individual for supply - ing controlled information from semiconductor companies ASML and NXP to Russia, as well as for providing technical assistance to individuals in Russia. The court imposed a prison sentence of three years, with a deduction for the time the defendant spent in custody and pre-trial detention prior to the conviction. 2.2.5 Mitigation EU Directive 2024/1226 establishes a common framework for defining criminal offences and penal - ties for violations of EU restrictive measures. On 28 April 2025, the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security announced that the Directive has been implemented through existing national legislation. Regarding mitigating factors, the Directive provides that when an offender supplies the competent authori - ties with information they would not otherwise have been able to obtain, assists in identifying or bringing other offenders to justice or helps to gather evidence, such co-operation shall be considered a mitigating circumstance. The Ministry of Justice and Security clarified that Dutch judges already have the discretion to consider all relevant mitigating factors in criminal proceedings, including those explicitly referenced in the Directive. The Dutch Public Prosecution Service has intro - duced further measures through the guidelines on self-reporting, co-operation and self-investigation

( de aanwijzing zelfmelden, medewerking en zelfond- erzoek ), which went into effect on 1 January 2025. Under these guidelines, companies that voluntarily, fully and promptly report potential criminal offences and provide full co-operation during the ensuing crimi - nal investigation may be eligible for a reduction of up to 50% on the total fine that the OM would otherwise impose if such self-reporting or co-operation did not occur. 2.2.6 “Strict Liability” Under the Sanctions Act 1977, all violations of the national sanctions regulations constitute a criminal offence if committed intentionally, or a misdemeanour if committed unintentionally. Certain EU regulations that are implemented into Dutch law also provide for a “non-liability clause” (see for example Article 10 of Regulation 833/2014) under which operators are protected against liability if they did not know, or had no reasonable cause to suspect, that their actions would infringe sanctions. These clauses cannot be invoked, however, if the operators failed to carry out appropriate due diligence. EU sanctions typically provide for derogations ena - bling operators to carry out activities that would oth - erwise be prohibited by restrictive measures. Although their effects are similar, derogations differ from exemptions. While exemptions are automat - ic and only require a notification of their use to the authorities, derogations are subject to the authorities’ approval. 2.3 Licensing 2.3.1 Derogation For a derogation, you must apply for an authorisa - tion from the national authorities, which benefit from a certain margin of appreciation in determining whether to grant it. On the other hand, an exemption does not require an authority’s approval: their use is subject to conditions, but is only declared to the authorities. Typical grounds for derogation are: • supply intended for humanitarian purposes, health emergencies and other exceptional circumstances;

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