Harrods restricts luxury sales to Russians
Harrods will no longer sell luxury goods worth more than £300 to Russian customers, as the company seeks to comply with sanctions introduced by the Government over Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The move will restrict the Knightsbridge department store’s offering of jewellery, designer clothing, food hampers, furniture and gym equipment to Russian shoppers.
The Telegraph revealed that the Qatar-owned store had been going through its customer database for those with a Russian phone number or who have said they live in the country.
An email sent by the store to a Russian citizen, seen by The Telegraph, said: “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 regulations seek to prohibit the supply of many categories of luxury goods over certain values (generally £300) to individuals who are either currently or ordinarily in Russia.”
The email also includes a link to the new regulations, which encouraged the customer to “review them”.
It added: “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.”
Harrods came under fire in Parliament over its approach to sanctions in March 2022 after ‘mistakenly’ selling luxury Russian vodka despite Ukraine war sanctions.
Harrods said in a statement: “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.
“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.”
