US sanctions against Russia, which were introduced at the end of February, in the coming months may lead to a shortage of some models of mid-range and premium smartphones, as well as to an increase in their cost. This was reported to Izvestia by a source in the consumer electronics market. Due to the ban on deliveries of gadgets over $300 to our country, some of the Middle East intermediaries who helped domestic distributors and retailers to purchase devices for parallel imports notified their partners of the refusal, he specified.
“Sanctions can affect not only smartphones from the United States – they are not produced there, but in general all devices that use American technologies and patents. And these are almost all gadgets, including South Korean and Chinese ones,” the source said.
So far, there have been no refusals to cooperate on the part of foreign suppliers, but this is most likely a matter of time, another Izvestia source believes.
The manager of one of the Russian distributors also does not foresee any problems with deliveries.
“American sanctions can lead to an extension of intermediary chains – it will not be possible to resell electronics through third countries in the Russian Federation. And any additional link means higher prices,” he notes.
As Yury Fedyukin, managing partner of Enterprise Legal Solutions, explained, the US restrictive measures are, in fact, cross-border in nature – de jure they apply only to American companies, but de facto, as a general rule, organizations that have assets, property, accounts whose shares are traded on US markets that conduct trading or other activities in the United States. Or even those whose work can affect the country’s economy.
American, and therefore subject to supply restrictions, can be recognized not only by Apple, but also by Samsung and Chinese Huawei, he says. The ban on the supply of smartphones over $300 applies equally to all brands and manufacturers, including those present in the US market, Yuri Fedyukin added.
