Companies from the United States, due to the government's relationship with the superiors of other countries such as Russia, Cuba or Iran, have to limit their contacts with certain enterprises. A special list of countries subject to restrictions and certain sanctions has been created. Microsoft did not comply with the regulation and it was decided to impose a fine.
Microsoft itself has noticed that some employees have tried to circumvent the sanctions, in particular employees from Russia. It was reported that in 2012-2019 transactions were made with companies from Russia, Cuba, Iran and Syria. There were 1,339 suspicious cases of software sales, and Microsoft was punished for not controlling the transaction. Due to the cooperation with the government and the fact that the company itself conducted an internal investigation into this matter and did not run away from responsibility, Microsoft was ultimately fined a relatively small amount of about 3 million of dollars.