Microsoft has agreed to pay over $3 million to settle a potential civil liability for more than 1,300 alleged sanction violations. The violations reportedly involved the sale of products and services to individuals and companies in countries including Russia, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and the Crimea region of Ukraine, between July 2012 and April 2019. Microsoft allegedly sold software licenses, activated software licenses, and related services from its US and Ireland servers to “Specially Designated Nationals” and blocked users in these countries.
The company reportedly sold $12.1 million worth of services to banned customers over the course of nearly seven years. Accounting for almost 94% of all instances were the 1,252 Russian sales. A further 54 in Cuba, 30 in Iran, and 3 in Syria also occurred.
