Online retail giant Amazon disclosed in a filing Thursday that it “processed and delivered” a number of consumer products to unidentified individuals and groups linked to Iran. Amazon warned that it may be penalized after a regulatory review of the activities.
According to a regulatory filing, from 2012 to 2016, the company “processed and delivered orders of consumer products for certain individuals and entities located outside Iran covered by the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act (ITRA).” The goods sold ranged from pet food to software.
The company claims to have reported the transactions to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security. The world’s largest e-commerce retailer is cooperating fully with the review by the agencies, and added that this could end in “penalties,” according to the filing.
The ITRA, signed by President Barack Obama in 2012, aimed to strengthen trade restrictions on Iran in order to persuade the country to check its nuclear activities. The law imposes civil penalties against organizations and companies that make deals with individuals on the government’s sanctions list. Upon reaching a multilateral agreement in which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear development, the U.S. lifted some of the sanctions.
Amazon’s current disclosure comes on the heel of last year’s admission to selling about $100,000 worth of products to Iranian customers who were subject to U.S. government sanctions.
The filings from last week show Amazon made $2,400 in consumer products sold to an entity controlled by the Iranian government, $1,300 in consumer products to an individual designated as subject to sanctions by an executive order, and $50 in consumer products to an Iranian embassy.
In its filing, Amazon announced its plans to cease sales to those accounts, “Our review is ongoing and we are enhancing our processes designed to identify transactions associated with individuals and entities covered by the ITRA.”
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