Export of Dual-Use Goods from the Czech Republic in 2026 - Licences and Obligations

What are dual-use goods and what is the legal framework in 2026

Dual-use goods are items, software, and technology that have civilian applications but can also be used for military purposes – particularly in the development or production of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems. Typical examples include machine tools, measuring and optical equipment, lasers, semiconductors, chemical precursors, biological materials, encryption software, or manufacturing technologies.

Export control is not a trade ban. Each individual transaction is assessed: if there is a risk of misuse, you will not receive a permit. The Czech Republic participates in international control regimes – the Wassenaar Arrangement, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control Regime – and their lists are transposed into EU law.

The legal framework consists of Regulation (EU) 2021/821 and Act No. 594/2004 Coll., on the implementation of the European Union regime for the control of exports, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items, as amended (most recently by Act No. 218/2025 Coll., effective from 1 July 2025). Details on forms and reporting are addressed by Government Regulation No. 30/2023 Coll. The competent authority is the Licensing Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, while control during export and transit is carried out by the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic. The Customs Office is also the authority that can detain a shipment on suspicion – we discuss how to proceed in such a situation and what to document in our article on detention of a shipment by the customs office.

Pay attention to the date: the control list in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2021/821 was replaced by Regulation (EU) 2025/2003, effective from 15 November 2025. The changes affected most categories – especially electronics, semiconductor technologies, lasers, manufacturing and laboratory equipment, and space technologies. The list also includes items that were not formally adopted under the Wassenaar Arrangement due to a veto by one state. As a result, many companies have entered the licensing regime for the first time – any classification performed before November 2025 must be repeated.

When you need a permit – and when the catch-all clause will surprise you

According to Section 3 of Act No. 594/2004 Coll., an export permit is required in four situations. The first is when an item is listed in Annex I of the Regulation. The second is the so-called catch-all regime, i.e., a licensing obligation for goods not on the list. The third is a decision by the Ministry in a specific case. The fourth is a national control list established by a government regulation for reasons of public security or human rights protection.

The catch-all clause has more forms than is commonly stated. According to Article 4 of the Regulation, it relates to weapons of mass destruction, missile systems, or military end-use in countries under an arms embargo. According to Article 5, a permit is required for cyber-surveillance items that could be used for internal repression or serious human rights violations – this is crucial for Czech software and security companies and often overlooked in practice. Articles 9 and 10 then allow for controls based on the national lists of other Member States.

Your obligation is not to "not export without consent," but to inform the Ministry. If you know or have reason to believe that the goods may be intended for any of the specified uses, you must notify the Licensing Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which will decide whether a permit is required. Only then is exporting without a permit illegal.

Does your company export technology, software, or goods that may fall under the dual-use regime? Watch our webinar and find out what to look out for when exporting.

The fourth path is the national control list. Section 3(1)(d) of the Act allows the government to establish by regulation other dual-use items for which an export permit is required for reasons of public security or human rights protection. This tool is mainly used to cover items whose inclusion could not be pushed through in international control regimes, where decisions are made unanimously.

The national list therefore exists alongside EU Annex I: if you do not find your goods in Annex I, it does not mean you do not need a permit. Before exporting, you must verify whether a government regulation that includes your segment is in effect at that time – in recent years, the focus has been particularly on advanced technologies.

A practical insight from case law: a communication by which the Ministry of Industry and Trade informs an exporter that a permit will be required for export is, according to the Supreme Administrative Court (judgment file no. 6 As 148/2022 of 9 March 2023), a decision within the meaning of Section 65 of the Code of Administrative Justice. You therefore have only two months to file an administrative action. In the aforementioned case, the entrepreneur missed the deadline, filed the wrong type of action, and did not obtain judicial protection – even though the catch-all measure thwarted his entire business relationship.

Export is not just a truck: software, email, brokering, and technical assistance

Export also includes the intangible transfer of software, technology, or technical documentation – by email, shared drive, remote server access, or telephone. Companies regularly forget this because nothing physically leaves the warehouse. If you send manufacturing documentation to a foreign partner outside the EU, the same rules apply as for exporting a machine.

However, Act No. 594/2004 Coll. does not only control exports. A permit is also required for:

• providing brokering services related to dual-use items (Section 3(3)) – typically arranging a delivery between two third countries, even if the goods never pass through the Czech Republic;

• technical assistance – training, service, consultation, assembly (Section 12); for licensing purposes, it is considered an export but is not subject to customs procedures;

• the transfer of selected items within the EU (Annex IV of the Regulation and Section 13);

• transit – the Ministry can prohibit transit (Section 13b); moreover, this decision is excluded from judicial review by law, so the scope for defence is significantly narrower.

Importers then often need to deal with an international import certificate (Section 14), which is required by the foreign supplier as a condition for issuing their export permit. Its issuance is also subject to an administrative fee of CZK 500 and is accompanied by an obligation to keep records of imports for at least 3 years.

How to obtain an export permit (licence)

The permit system has four levels. An individual export permit covers a specific transaction to one country of destination. A global export permit allows for repeated exports of goods of the same nature to one or more countries; however, under Section 8(4), you must demonstrate that you are able to comply with the export control regime and verify the end-use of individual deliveries. There are also Union General Export Authorisations EU001 to EU008 and a National General Export Authorisation of the Czech Republic.

EU General Authorisations are the simplest route where you qualify for them. EU001 covers the export of selected items to a narrow circle of countries with a similar export control regime. EU002 to EU006 address specific typical situations – export of selected items to specified destinations, export after repair or replacement, temporary export for an exhibition or trade fair, telecommunications, and chemical substances.

EU007 concerns intra-group technology transfers and explicitly requires an established internal compliance programme, while EU008 covers cryptographic items. The scope of items and the list of destinations differ for each authorisation and change over time – therefore, always rely on the current version of Annex II of the Regulation, not on secondary sources.

Using a general authorisation is not without obligations. According to Section 6(2), you must register in writing with the Ministry before the first use (the Ministry of Industry and Trade will confirm the registration within 10 days), report changes within 15 days, and submit a report on exports made by the tenth day of the month following the end of the calendar half-year. Exporting without a valid registration is a separate offence.

Procedure before the Licensing Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade step by step

The application is submitted by the exporter in writing using an electronic form (Section 8(1)). Submissions should be directed to the e-Filing Office of the Licensing Administration (ELIS), to the data box of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (ID bxtaaw4), or to the Ministry's mailroom. The deadline for a decision is 30 days from the date of application; this stems from the Code of Administrative Procedure and is extended when supplementing documents. The Ministry will request opinions from other state bodies – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office for Foreign Relations and Information, and possibly the State Office for Nuclear Safety – which have 20 days to respond. Therefore, realistically expect a process of several weeks to a month.

With the application under Section 8(2) and (3), you must submit:

• an extract from the Commercial Register – an original or an officially certified copy not older than 90 days, or proof of a business license;

• an import certificate from the authority of the importing state or a declaration from the foreign end-user specifying the purpose of use, which must correspond to the data in the application, and a statement that the goods will not be re-exported without the consent of the Czech Republic;

• a draft contract or a concluded contract with the foreign partner with a precise specification of the goods, including quantity;

• a permit from another authority, if required – for nuclear materials, consent from the State Office for Nuclear Safety; for chemical and biological items, according to special laws.

The administrative fee for granting a permit is CZK 500 and is not paid if the permit cannot be granted. From a cost perspective, this is negligible – the risk is the time and a potential rejection, not the fee.

The Ministry will not grant a permit, in particular, if you do not meet the application conditions, if it is contrary to the foreign policy or security interests of the Czech Republic, or if the end-user or end-use does not guarantee the exclusion of links to weapons of mass destruction, military use contrary to the interests of the Czech Republic, or human rights violations. A crucial and overlooked point: you will also not receive a permit for a period of 3 years from the date a decision on a more serious offence under Section 18(1)(a) to (f) becomes final, or 2 years in the case of repeated less serious offences.

A new development you need to know: with its finding file no. Pl. ÚS 13/24 of 26 March 2025, the Constitutional Court annulled the second sentence of Section 10(5) of Act No. 594/2004 Coll., which excluded judicial review of decisions on export permits. The refusal to grant a permit – including cases justified by a general reference to foreign policy interests – can now be challenged by an administrative action. An appeal to the Minister of Industry and Trade against the granting or non-granting of a permit still cannot be filed; an appeal is admissible against a decision to terminate proceedings, within a 15-day period. If your permit was rejected in the past with a one-sentence justification, it is worth considering whether there is now a path to court.

Obligations after a permit is issued where companies most often make mistakes

The work does not end with obtaining the permit. The Act imposes a number of record-keeping and reporting obligations, the violation of which is a separate offence punishable by a fine of up to CZK 5,000,000:

• state the permit number in the customs declaration (Section 11(1));

• return the copy of the permit with the deduction sheet confirmed by the customs office to the Ministry no later than 15 days after the expiry of its validity or after the final realisation of the export; return an unused permit immediately, stating the reason;

• inform the Ministry in writing about the use of the permit by the tenth day of the month following the end of the calendar half-year;

• keep records, commercial documents, and records for at least 5 years from the end of the calendar year in which the export took place;

• upon request from the Ministry, submit proof of delivery verification issued by the authority of the importing country;

• for items in Category 5, Chapter 2 of Annex I transferred within the EU, provide additional information upon request.

The transaction trap: according to Section 21 of the Act, granted permits are non-transferable and do not pass to legal successors. In the event of a merger, demerger, transfer of a business, or transformation, the licence does not transfer, and the acquirer must apply again – even if they have taken over the entire operation and contracts. In transactions, this is a typical hidden deal-breaker: the buyer discovers only after closing that they cannot fulfil ongoing export contracts. The lawyers at ARROWS address this during the due diligence phase and cover it in the closing conditions.

Sanctions: administrative offence, criminal offence, and impacts on the company

Here it is necessary to be precise, as the difference is significant for management decision-making. The sanction level is two-tiered, and both tiers are a real possibility.

Administrative level

According to Section 18(2) of Act No. 594/2004 Coll., a fine of up to CZK 20,000,000 can be imposed for exporting without a valid permit, transferring within the EU without a permit, violating a transit ban, providing brokering services or technical assistance without a permit, using a false or altered permit, and for providing false information in an application. For violations of record-keeping, registration, and reporting obligations, the upper limit is CZK 5,000,000 (Section 17(2) and Section 18(2)). Offences are handled by the customs office in whose district the offence was detected. An attempt to commit selected offences is also punishable, and liability expires no later than 10 years after the commission.

Criminal level

The Criminal Code contains three separate offences for this area, and they are stricter than is commonly reported:

• Section 262 – Violation of regulations on the control of exports of dual-use goods and technologies: whoever exports dual-use goods or technologies without a valid permit shall be punished by imprisonment for three to eight years or by forfeiture of property. This is the basic offence – it does not require an organised group, significant gain, or any other aggravating circumstance. The lower limit of three years means that a suspended sentence is not a given.

• Section 263 – Breach of duties in the export of dual-use goods and technologies: up to three years for a breach of an important duty arising from one's position or employment that leads to the unauthorised issuance of a permit or the leakage of goods from records; six months to five years if an export has occurred.

• Section 264 – Distortion of data and failure to keep records: up to two years for obtaining a permit based on false information or for failing to keep or destroying records.

Beware of a common confusion: Section 265 of the Criminal Code does not concern dual-use goods – it applies to foreign trade in military material under Act No. 38/1994 Coll. This is a different regime, a different type of permit, and a different offence.

Corporate liability and subsequent impacts

The aforementioned criminal offences are not excluded from the range of crimes that can be committed by a legal entity (Section 7 of Act No. 418/2011 Coll.). The company therefore faces a monetary penalty, forfeiture of property or an item, a ban on activities, a ban on participating in public procurement, a ban on receiving grants and subsidies, publication of the judgment, and, in extreme cases, dissolution of the legal entity. For suppliers to the defence, energy, or transport sectors, exclusion from public procurement is often the most sensitive issue – its economic impact can be many times greater than the fine itself.

It is essential that Section 8(5) of the same Act offers a ground for exoneration: a legal entity shall be exonerated from liability if it has made all the effort that could have been fairly required of it to prevent the unlawful act. Functional export compliance is therefore not an administrative burden, but a legal defence with a quantifiable value.

In addition, the customs office can detain a shipment on reasonable suspicion (Section 13a), and the Ministry has 15 days to communicate the next steps. It is also necessary to separately evaluate sanctions regulations – particularly Regulation (EU) No. 833/2014 concerning Russia, Regulation (EC) No. 765/2006 concerning Belarus, Regulation (EU) No. 267/2012 concerning Iran, and measures against the DPRK. These can prohibit the export entirely, even if you would otherwise obtain a licence. Screening the end-user and the partner's ownership structure is therefore a separate step that a licence from the Ministry of Industry and Trade does not replace – we described the procedure in the article how to manage risks arising from the EU sanctions list.

Internal Compliance Programme (ICP) as a defence, not a formality

An Internal Compliance Programme is a set of internal rules, responsibilities, training, and records through which a company systematically monitors its export obligations. It has three specific legal effects. For a global export permit, it is effectively the tool to demonstrate the ability to comply with the export control regime under Section 8(4). For the EU007 General Authorisation, an established ICP is an explicit condition for its use. And at the criminal level, it provides the basis for the ground for exoneration.

A functional ICP typically includes a responsible person with a clear mandate, a classification procedure for new products and their changes, screening of business partners and end-users, rules for intangible transfers (email, cloud, remote access, participation of foreign colleagues in development), a calendar of reporting obligations, archiving for 5 years, and training records. We discuss the specific form of individual elements, including the division of responsibilities and control points, in a separate article on the Internal Compliance Programme (ICP). The lawyers at ARROWS can help you set up an ICP and your overall export strategy – write to us at consultation@arws.cz.

Worry-free exporting: how the lawyers at ARROWS can help you

Export controls are an area where lists, sanctions regulations, and case law change rapidly – in the last twelve months, we have seen a new Annex I, an amendment to the Act, and a Constitutional Court finding that opened up judicial review. The lawyers at ARROWS have a long-standing specialisation in international trade and export controls, linking the legal side with business decision-making.

We provide item classification and written opinions, complete licensing procedures before the Licensing Administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, sanctions screening of partners, setting up internal policies and team training, representation during customs administration inspections, defence against fines, and defence in criminal proceedings. We can act as an external partner to your legal department or take on the case on a turnkey basis.

ARROWS also operates internationally: thanks to our own ARROWS International network, we coordinate cases with a cross-border element so that the client has one main partner who manages local lawyers and other experts. Maximum discretion is a matter of course; for professional liability purposes, the ARROWS law firm is insured with a limit of CZK 350,000,000.

Do not hesitate to contact the ARROWS law firm – consultation@arws.cz. We will listen to the details of your case and propose the most suitable course of action.

Final summary

Exporting dual-use goods is legal, but only with a valid permit and in compliance with record-keeping and reporting obligations. For 2026, three things are crucial: the updated Annex I, effective from 15 November 2025, which may have brought your goods into the regime for the first time; the actual level of criminal risk – Section 262 of the Criminal Code carries a sentence of 3 to 8 years for the basic offence; and the opening of judicial review for rejected applications following the finding Pl. ÚS 13/24.

For management, this means one thing: classification and compliance cannot be dealt with only when a shipment is detained by the customs office. The most economically sensitive issue is not the fine, but the three-year block on further permits, thwarted contracts, and possible exclusion from public procurement. If you do not want to risk delays, sanctions, or a halt to your exports, entrust the matter to the ARROWS law firm – contact us at consultation@arws.cz and we will go through your specific situation with you.