Sanctions & Export Controls
Peters & Peters has been recognised as a leading advisory firm in the field of sanctions and export controls for over a decade. We were named Sanctions Law Firm of the Year (Europe) by specialist industry publication WorldECR in 2015. Our practice and lawyers are top ranked for their sanctions and export control expertise.
“The sanctions and export controls offering at Peters & Peters is recognised as one of the leaders in its field” (Chambers 2024).
We advise individuals and corporates on sanctions and export control compliance, enforcement and legal challenges. Our clients are banks and other regulated financial institutions, law firms and other professional service providers, non-governmental organisations and charities, importers and exporters operating across a range of industries including aerospace, art, defence, energy, engineering, maritime, real estate, telecommunications and transport.
Our compliance work builds on our extensive experience of dealing with licensing authorities in the UK and overseas, and related interactions with regulators and private sector counterparties. We work closely with sanctions specialists around the world in order to deliver tailored and timely compliance advice to our clients, ranging from issue-specific compliance advice to preventative advice on the content and implementation of internal policies and procedures including bespoke training.
Drawing on our firm’s unrivalled business crime expertise we are ideally placed to advise on actual or potential sanctions breaches and related reporting obligations. We advise on and assist with internal investigations and represent our clients in their interactions with regulators and enforcement agencies worldwide.
We have unrivalled experience of administrative and judicial challenges to sanctions designations and licensing decisions. We brought the first judicial review of the UK’s implementation of EU sanctions, as well as the largest sanctions-related annulment application ever filed at the EU General Court on behalf of 123 Zimbabwean individuals and entities.
With the help of our specialist civil litigation and insolvency teams we assist our clients with the resolution of disputes arising out of the impact of sanctions on contractual arrangements, including in connection with contested litigation and international arbitration proceedings.
- Acting for Eugene Shvidler in the first de-designation court challenge to the UK’s Russia sanctions.
- Represented Integral Concierge Services Ltd in enforcement proceedings brought by OFSI.
- Representing Dmitrii Ovsyannikov in the UK’s first criminal prosecution of alleged sanctions breaches under the Sanctions and Money Laundering Act 2018.
- Acted for Igor Makarov in his successful de-listing by the UK Government.
- We brought a successful ministerial review challenge in Khasis, and are set to bring the first judicial challenge to the UK’s Russian sanctions regime in a London court.
- We successfully brought an application to annul our client’s EU financial sanctions designation, culminating with the Council’s decision to de-list him (Abdelkader Sabra v Council of the European Union, judgment of the EU General Court of 16 March 2022).
- We secured a 95% reduction in a compound penalty levied on our client following an HM Revenue & Customs export controls and trade sanctions investigation.
