NIQ, the world’s largest consumer-data provider, has been conducting business in occupied Ukraine despite international sanctions against the Russian Federation, the Financial Times reported.
In recent months, NIQ Russia highlighted new coverage of beer sales in what it called Russia’s “new territories”—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, the newspaper said. The subsidiary also published a ranking of brands from Crimea, saying sales of fast-moving consumer goods tied to the peninsula rose nearly 40% over a year.
The disclosure raises questions for U.S. sanctions policy. A 2022 executive order bars U.S. persons from doing business or investing in Russia’s occupied Ukrainian regions, with limited exceptions. Documentation seen by the FT indicates the U.S. Treasury has been alerted to the activity and asked to review it.
Sanctions lawyers who spoke to the FT noted that an American parent company might effectively circumvent restrictions by arguing that a locally incorporated Russian subsidiary acted independently without disclosing the activity or involving a U.S. person.
NIQ told the newspaper that it has “financially deconsolidated and localized” its Russia operation, which “operates independently of NIQ” and is excluded from group financials. “Actions taken by the Russian entity are not actions of NIQ,” the company told the Financial Times.
The developments come as the Kremlin steps up pressure on foreign businesses to enter the occupied territories, which are largely recognized by governments around the world as Ukrainian.
Read more at the Financial Times