Since February 6, 2026, stricter penalties and fines for violations of EU sanctions have been in force. Numerous violations that could previously only be prosecuted as administrative offenses are now subject to mandatory penalties for intentional acts, company fines have quadrupled and the due diligence requirements for dual-use goods have increased significantly. What has changed in concrete terms – and what this means for your compliance.
The Act on the Adaptation of Criminal Offenses and Sanctions for Violations of Restrictive Measures of the European Union entered into force on February 6, 2026, following its publication in the German Federal Law Bulletin on February 5, 2026.
This transposes the provisions of the “EU Directive (2024/1226) on the definition of criminal offenses and sanctions for breaches of restrictive measures of the European Union” into German law.
Tightening of criminal and administrative offenses
The main focus is the revision of the criminal and administrative offense standards in Sections 18, 19 AWG and Section 82 AWV:
Numerous violations that could previously only be prosecuted as administrative offenses are now subject to mandatory criminal prosecution for intentional acts. Violations of other prohibited activities, such as trade, transport, services and transactions, have also been explicitly included in the list of criminal offenses in Section 18 AWG in order to comply with the principle of certainty under criminal law. The list of administrative offenses in Section 82 AWV was also expanded accordingly.
An important innovation concerns violations of goods-related sanctions in connection with dual-use goods covered by Annex I of the EU Dual-Use Regulation (2021/821): In the future, recklessness (as a particularly high degree of negligence) instead of intent will suffice for possible criminal liability instead of prosecution as a mere administrative offense.
In addition, certain acts of evasion and breaches of the so-called “everyman’s duty” in connection with assets to be frozen are now also punishable.
For legal entities and associations of persons, there is a particularly glaring increase: the statutory maximum corporate fine for intentional offenses has been raised from 10 million euros in accordance with Section 30 OWiG to 40 million euros.
Finally, the previous two-day “waiting period” following the announcement of new EU sanctions legislation will no longer apply.
Action required
In practice, however, this already means that compliance structures, risk management and early warning systems must be further sharpened in order to minimize impending criminal risks in the future.
