Airbus to pay £6.4 million in HMRC's biggest export settlement
Business
Airbus has agreed to pay £6.4 million after admitting it broke UK export control rules, mostly by not keeping the right records for military licenses.
The violations happened before November 2022 and led to HMRC's biggest ever out-of-court settlement over strategic exports.
HMRC cites Airbus compliance lapses
Even though Airbus builds major defense aircraft like the Eurofighter Typhoon, it's been called out for repeated compliance slip-ups.
HMRC said Airbus failed to keep proper export registers and didn't stick to license conditions, but the company cooperated with investigators and fixed its mistakes.
Sanctions lawyer Nigel Kushner called the penalty a "wake up call," reminding exporters that keeping accurate records is crucial if you want to avoid trouble.