Legal control, embargo and licenses

Screening asks who. Legal control asks what goes where: whether a product, given its export control classification, may go to the destination country and end use, and whether a license is needed. The embargo check asks whether a country or region is under an embargo that blocks the transaction regardless of product. Both run on documents transferred from the feeder.

Embargo checks

SAP's user guide describes two levels for embargo situations: at country or region level for embargos imposed by, for example, the United Nations, which a company must follow, and at legal regulation and country level for a company's own private embargos, which it may suspend. When a purchasing or sales document or a payment arrives from the feeder, GTS checks the countries of the business partners and blocks the transaction if an embargo situation applies. Embargo situations are maintained in the Manage Embargo Situation app.

Legal control

Legal control combines product classification with legal regulations. In the US, export controls under the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) use Export Control Classification Numbers (ECCNs) from the Commerce Control List; items subject to the EAR but not listed are designated EAR99. Defense articles fall under ITAR, which GTS models with agreements. In GTS, products are classified with control classes (Classify Products – Legal Control), the legal regulation decides how licenses are determined (by determination sequence, license types and the classification), and documents that need a license are blocked unless a valid license with enough remaining quantity or value is found.

Licenses

Licenses are maintained in the Manage Licenses app with legal regulation, license type, validity, countries and the external license number from the authority. Licenses can carry quantity or value limits. When GTS assigns a license to a document item, it deducts the goods value or quantity, and the license monitor shows the assigned documents and remaining balance. Simulate Business Transactions for Legal Control lets a specialist test a product, country and partner combination without creating a document, which is useful both for daily questions and for test preparation.

Releasing and rechecking blocked documents

Blocked documents are reviewed in Manage Blocked Documents. After a fix, for example a newly maintained license or a corrected classification, documents are rechecked. In E4H, SAP's knowledge base notes that rechecking is done in that app or with report /SAPSLL/CUHD_MASS_REFRESH_EXIM; the GTS 11.0 report for rechecking all blocked documents is no longer available. Plan the operational procedure and the test for it accordingly.

Step by step: preparing legal control test data

1. With Ingrid, choose products for each case: an EAR99 product, a classified product that needs a license for some destinations, and a deliberately unclassified product.
2. Classify the test products in Classify Products – Legal Control and confirm them in Display Classified Products – Legal Control.
3. Create test licenses in Manage Licenses: one valid with a small remaining quantity, one expired, one for a different destination.
4. Use Simulate Business Transactions for Legal Control to predict the result of each product, country and partner combination before creating documents.
5. Create the sales orders and deliveries in the feeder; compare the actual block or release with the simulation.
6. For the license case, check the license monitor before and after: the remaining quantity must drop by the delivered quantity.

The simulation step is worth the time. It separates configuration questions ("does the legal regulation determine this license type at all?") from integration questions ("did the delivery reach GTS with the right country?"), so a failed test points at the right team.