The Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and ECCNs, explained for exporters outside the US

Why the EAR reach you outside the US

The Export Administration Regulations (15 CFR Parts 730–774) are administered by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) under the Export Control Reform Act of 2018. Their reach, set out in § 734.3, is deliberately long.

Four hooks matter to a company outside the US: items of US origin are subject to the EAR wherever they sit; foreign-made items are caught once they contain more than a de minimis share of controlled US content; foreign direct products of certain US technology are caught even with no US parts at all; and the rules govern not just exports but reexports and transfers inside a single country. A German integrator reselling an American sensor, or a Taiwanese board house shipping a module with a US chip on it, is inside this system whether it knows or not.

What is an ECCN?

An Export Control Classification Number is the address of an item on the Commerce Control List (Supplement No. 1 to Part 774). Five characters, read like this: take 3A001 — the first digit is the category (0–9; here 3, electronics), the letter is the product group (A–E: systems and equipment, test gear, materials, software, technology), and the last three digits encode the reason for control.

Finding the right entry means working the list’s technical parameters against your specification, not matching a product name. BIS explains the method on its classification page; a binding determination (a CCATS) can be requested through SNAP-R. This decision is where everything downstream starts, and it is exactly the work Thylon’s classification module drafts for your officer’s sign-off, parameter by parameter, with citations.

EAR99 is not a free pass

Items subject to the EAR but matching no CCL entry are EAR99. That designation ends many classification memos and starts many violations: EAR99 still carries the embargo rules, the prohibited end uses, and every restricted-party list. In January 2026 BIS settled with Exyte for $1.5 million over its Shanghai subsidiary’s in-country transfers of EAR99 items to SMIC — a listed party — and in April 2026 a semiconductor-equipment supplier settled over EAR99 technology sent to Entity List parties.

The honest formulation: EAR99 means no licence is needed for most destinations and most customers. The remainder is where enforcement lives, which is why screening never switches off just because classification came back unlisted.

De minimis and the Foreign Direct Product rules

Two doctrines pull foreign-made goods into the system. § 734.4 (de minimis) counts the value share of controlled US-origin content in your foreign-made product: above the threshold — generally 25 per cent, and 10 per cent for a small set of destinations — your product is treated as subject to the EAR for that shipment. § 734.9 (the Foreign Direct Product rules) goes further for specific technologies and end users: output produced with certain US technology or tooling is controlled even when the bill of materials is entirely non-American.

For European and Taiwanese manufacturers this is the quiet workload: tracking US content percentages per product, per destination, before anyone asks. It is also why “we are not a US company” has never been a compliance position.

Licence exceptions

Part 740 holds the EAR’s pressure valves: licence exceptions such as STA (strategic trade authorisation), ENC (encryption), LVS (limited value), TMP (temporary exports) and GBS. Each is a conditional permission with its own eligibility tests, record duties and reporting — an exception used sloppily is a violation with better paperwork.

Mapping a transaction against the exceptions it could lawfully use, with the conditions spelled out, is part of what Thylon’s licensing module drafts before your officer decides whether to claim one or file for a licence.

Deemed exports and § 734.18

Releasing controlled technology or source code to a foreign national is an export to that person’s country — the deemed-export rule of § 734.13(b). Hiring across borders therefore has an export dimension long before anything ships.

Its counterpart, § 734.18, lists activities that are not exports — including sending or storing technology that is end-to-end encrypted to the standard the rule sets, with the keys withheld. That carve-out is the legal foundation of how Thylon handles customer technical data.

The Entity List and the Affiliates Rule

The EAR’s party lists do the targeting: the Entity List (Supplement No. 4 to Part 744), the Military End-User List and the Unverified List, all folded into the US Consolidated Screening List. A match changes the licence answer regardless of classification.

The newest moving part is the Affiliates Rule: an interim final rule of 30 September 2025 extended Entity List and MEU restrictions to entities 50 per cent or more owned by listed parties, individually or in aggregate. It was suspended on 10 November 2025, and as of November 2026 that suspension runs until 10 January 2027. Ownership maths may yet become part of every screen — Thylon’s screening module tracks the rule’s status so your checks match the law in force on the day.

ECCN, Annex I and UK entries

The EU’s Annex I and the UK’s Strategic Export Control Lists descend from the same multilateral regimes as the CCL — Wassenaar above all — so the codes often look alike: 3A001 exists in all three systems. Looking alike is not being alike; parameters and decontrol notes diverge, and one product can be listed in one system and free in another. Classify per regime, never by analogy.

What changed in 2025–2026

• 15 Sep 2025 — USML targeted revisions took effect, moving certain antennas and other items from the ITAR to the EAR — affected items need their jurisdiction re-reviewed.
• 30 Sep 2025 — BIS issued the Affiliates Rule as an interim final rule, extending Entity List and MEU restrictions to majority-owned affiliates of listed parties.
• 10 Nov 2025 — The Affiliates Rule was suspended for one year following the US–China arrangement.
• 11 Feb 2026 — BIS announced a $252 million penalty against Applied Materials — described by BIS as the statutory maximum, twice the value of the goods shipped.
• 17 Jun 2026 — Robert Bosch GmbH agreed to a $36 million settlement in a Huawei-related matter; earlier in 2026, Exyte settled for $1.5 million over EAR99 in-country transfers to SMIC.
• 9 Nov 2026 — A Federal Register notice stayed the Affiliates Rule further, until 10 January 2027.

Primary sources

• BIS — Classify your item
• BIS — Interactive Commerce Control List
• eCFR — 15 CFR Subchapter C (the EAR)
• Federal Register — Affiliates Rule (30 Sep 2025)
• BIS — News and updates

Where this fits

Export control rarely means one regime at a time. The pages below cover the rest of the map, and the product pages show how Thylon turns each list and licence type into drafted, cited work your officer signs off.