In the latest fallout of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, some super-rich Russian shoppers known to enjoy shopping for high-end luxury goods at the famous Harrods store in central London have been issued a spending limit, a media report claimed on Sunday.
The department store in Knightsbridge has contacted Russian customers warning that it will no longer sell them luxury goods worth more than GBP 300, according to The Telegraph'. The store says the move is in order to comply with a series of sanctions imposed by the UK government in retaliation over Russia's conflict with Ukraine.
As you may be aware, the UK authorities have introduced further regulations as part of their ongoing sanctions against Russia which specifically target the sale of luxury goods, the newspaper quoted an email sent to one wealthy Russian.
The regulations seek to prohibit the supply of many categories of luxury goods over certain values (generally GBP 300) to individuals who are either currently or ordinarily in Russia, it reads.
The email reportedly includes a link to the new regulations and encourages the customer to review them.
The email is further quoted as saying: To comply with these regulations, Harrods has been required to review its customer information to identify those customers who it appears (by reference to the country or phone number information they have provided to us) might currently or usually be resident in Russia.
Based on this information, we have identified you as someone who might currently or ordinarily be resident in Russia. If this is correct, this would mean that you are subject to the regulations and we will be unable to supply you with any restricted luxury goods.
Since the invasion, the UK government says it has sanctioned, or designated, over 1,000 Russian individuals and 100 entities, including oligarchs with a net global worth of over GBP 117 billion.
The sanctions cover an asset freeze which prevents any UK citizen, or any business in the UK, from dealing with any funds or economic resources which are owned, held or controlled by the designated person.
In March, soon after the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the UK banned high-end luxury exports to Russia and imposed new import tariffs on key Russian products. The British government had also issued a call for all UK-based companies to think very carefully about any investments in Russia over the ongoing Ukrainian conflict.
In order to ensure we are complying with these restrictions, we reviewed our database to identify potentially impacted customers, and asked them to notify Harrods if the information we hold is not accurate and current. This was not based on nationality, but address/contact details or previous transaction delivery data, Harrods said in a statement.
Our priority is to comply with regulations, informing potentially impacted customers on how it may limit their ability to shop at Harrods, and ensuring wider customers are not unduly affected. We are happy that we have been able to take this action and support customers in making them aware of recent government regulations, the statement said.
