BIS amends EAR to allow Temporary Denial Orders renewable up to one year for repeat violators

Mechanism

A Temporary Denial Order is an administrative enforcement tool under 15 CFR 766.24 that BIS may impose on an ex parte basis to prevent imminent violations of the Export Control Reform Act (ECRA) or the EAR. "Imminent" is defined broadly — either imminent in time or by likelihood of occurrence — giving BIS the authority to act pre-emptively against an entity before a formal penalty proceeding concludes. The Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement must determine the order is required in the public interest.

Before this rule, TDOs could be renewed for no more than 180 days per renewal cycle. Each renewal required a fresh application and sign-off, creating recurring administrative burden when the same entity continued to violate the EAR over a multi-year horizon. The amended 15 CFR 766.24 adds a second renewal track: where BIS can demonstrate a pattern of repeated, ongoing, and/or continuous apparent violations, the Assistant Secretary may approve a renewal term of up to one year. The 180-day track remains available for non-pattern cases.

Context: Russian and Belarusian aviation TDOs

The practical catalyst was BIS's enforcement campaign against civil aviation entities operating aircraft subject to EAR controls in violation of the Russia/Belarus export restrictions imposed in March 2022. Beginning with PJSC Aeroflot (TDO issued 7 April 2022), BIS issued TDOs against multiple Russian carriers — Ural Airlines, Rossiya Airlines, Nordwind Airlines, and others — as these entities continued to operate Airbus and Boeing aircraft (which contain US-origin technology) in violation of both EAR restrictions and their individual TDOs. The airlines had demonstrated precisely the pattern the extended-renewal track targets: continuous, deliberate non-compliance spanning multiple renewal cycles.

Downstream implications

• Extends the administrative longevity of TDOs for structural recidivists

without requiring BIS to reopen the application cycle every 180 days — reducing enforcement overhead while sustaining export-denial coverage.

• Signals BIS's intent to use TDOs as a durable enforcement layer alongside

entity-list designations and civil monetary penalties for entities that cannot be brought into compliance through shorter-term denial orders.

• Does not affect TDOs issued before the rule's effective date; prior TDOs

are renewed under whatever provisions were in effect when first issued unless BIS re-issues under the new track.

• The "pattern" standard will require BIS to build a documentary record

across renewal cycles — creating an incentive for earlier, more complete documentation of ongoing violations in each renewal application.

Open questions

• Whether the one-year extended renewal track will be applied outside the

Russia/Belarus aviation context (e.g., Chinese entities on the Entity List that continue to source controlled items through third-country intermediaries).

• Whether the extended duration increases the risk of legal challenge by

denial-order subjects on procedural-due-process grounds given the longer deprivation of export privileges without a full hearing.