On September 20, 2016, the United States made life a little easier for companies exporting products containing certain types of encryption. The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) amended the Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) to, among other things, update the rules associated with exports and re-exports of encryption items. The amendments implement changes to which the member countries of the Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies agreed in December 2015.
Some of the more important changes to those rules are briefly summarized below.
Changes to Category 5, Part 2
The amendments split out the various subparagraphs of the main category of encryption items (those in Export Control Classification Number (“ECCN”) 5A002) into three subsections. The three new subsections are as follows: (i) items for cryptographic information security (ECCN 5A002); (ii) items for non-cryptographic information security (ECCN 5A003); and (iii) items for defeating, weakening, or bypassing information security (ECCN 5A004). Conforming changes also were made to ECCNs 5D002 and 5E002. In addition, BIS revised ECCNs 5A992 and 5D992 to include only encryption items that qualify for mass market treatment under the EAR. The amendments removed 5E992 in its entirety.
Source: http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=9600fccd-4c3a-4d75-a94d-360eefa478c9
