They wouldn't be breaking EU law in doing so, but whoever supplied this Polish citizen would be breaching the terms of their US export license or license exception. Germany has been granted a license exception specifically because the BIS trusts them to prevent this from happening.
A company in Poland is not prevented from importing advanced GPUs, but they need to apply for either a license or a Validated End-User Authorization. Likewise, Poland could apply to be recognised as an eligible destination country on the same terms as Germany if they can provide written assurances to the US government that they have taken adequate steps to prevent diversion.
I'm not a fan of these rules, but I think they're being misrepresented.
https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-00636.pdf
And whoever (if that's an entity trading in the EU) refuses to supply a Polish citizen on the basis of his nationality is most probably breaking the rules of the Common Market. So if nobody wants to break any laws, this ultimately ends with EU buying GPUs from China.
Nobody is or is planning to restrict Polish consumers from buying GPUs from Germany.
The export regulations we're talking about:
> organizations in countries that are not close allies of the US can purchase up to 50,000 advanced GPUs per country over the next two years. Organizations can also apply for a trusted National Verified End User status that would allow them to purchase up to 320,000 advanced GPUs over the next two years.
> The vast majority of countries fall into the second tier. This group faces caps on the levels of computing power that can go to any one state: roughly around 50,000 advanced AI chips through 2027, although that can double if the state reaches an agreement with the United States. Individual companies headquartered in tier two countries—for example, companies such as Emirati tech giant G42—can access significantly higher limits if they apply for their own national validated end user status. That process involves making verifiable security commitments, both physical and cyber, and assurances that they will not use those chips in ways that violate human rights (for example, by deploying them for large-scale surveillance purposes). If a company obtains this status, its chip imports won’t count toward the country’s overall maximum cap—a move designed to create incentives for foreign firms to adopt U.S. AI standards.
Let's just say hypothetical situations tend to happen quite often here in CEE. So in the beginning of the 90s, after the fall of communism, the borders were open but old US restrictions on buying computers were still in place for a few years. What did companies do? I think you can guess, a few enterprising guys made good money by privately buying computers in the West and selling them to companies back home. It's a long time ago, but not that long.
So I don't know, what happens when a country fills up its quota, but then the quota does not apply to small orders, so you just order in smaller batches or what.. anyway at some point Nvidia says 'No GPUs for you Poland' but that's not really true for e.g. Google that's in Poland too, and also it's not true for consumers buying GPUs. It just doesn't seem to be enforceable to me.
The company in Poland might be owned and run by a German national and a Pole might be the owner of the German company. The AI chip export rules would apply exactly the same.
https://www.bmi.bund.de/SharedDocs/pressemitteilungen/EN/202...
But of course your overall point stands
This is no longer true, they've done a "Temporary Reintroduction of Border Control", and bunch of countries have implemented more control as of late. https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/policies/schengen-borders-...
Not sure "all the time" is accurate. Two years ago I drove a car through Switzerland, entering from the South border and leaving at the North border (and ~3 weeks later, the opposite way), there was no border checks at all. The only control we encountered when traveling from Spain to Sweden (and vice-versa) by car was the quick checks at the German<>Denmark ferry border.
Yes, of course, but this is true anywhere, not just for the places under the "Temporary Reintroduction of Border Control".
But all major are and were in the past, all frontaliers coming daily for the jobs in all border cantons can tell you about wonders of morning checks corresponding massive traffic jams forming in front of the border crossings, every single day. 1/3 of my office colleagues experience this every day.
Major eastern border crossings are 100% manned though, morning day night doesn't matter.
They do not check extra hard, though... It's been a number of years but they used to wave cars through or even have border/customs checkpoints closed depending on their 'mood'...
(I don't get export controls on cloud hardware. Unless it's protectionism designed to lock countries with cheap energy prices out of the market, of course. I could see that rationale).
Although in the case of colocation, they do offer space in Finland for ca 1/3 less per kWh.