Ukrainians Sue US Chip Firms For Powering Russian Drones, Missiles

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Dozens of Ukrainian civilians filed a series of lawsuits in Texas this week, accusing some of the biggest US chip firms of negligently failing to track chips that evaded export curbs. Those chips were ultimately used to power Russian and Iranian weapon systems, causing wrongful deaths last year. Their complaints alleged that for years, Texas Instruments (TI), AMD, and Intel have ignored public reporting, government warnings, and shareholder pressure to do more to track final destinations of chips and shut down shady distribution channels diverting chips to sanctioned actors in Russia and Iran.

Putting profits over human lives, tech firms continued using 'high-risk' channels, Ukrainian civilians' legal team alleged in a press statement, without ever strengthening controls. All that intermediaries who placed bulk online orders had to do to satisfy chip firms was check a box confirming that the shipment wouldn't be sent to sanctioned countries, lead attorney Mikal Watts told reporters at a press conference on Wednesday, according to the Kyiv Independent. 'There are export lists,' Watts said. 'We know exactly what requires a license and what doesn't. And companies know who they're selling to. But instead, they rely on a checkbox that says, 'I'm not shipping to Putin.' That's it. No enforcement. No accountability.'

Damages sought include funeral expenses and medical costs, as well as 'exemplary damages' that are 'intended to punish especially wrongful conduct and to deter similar conduct in the future.' For plaintiffs, the latter is the point of the litigation, which they hope will cut off key supply chains to keep US tech out of weapon systems deployed against innocent civilians. 'They want to send a clear message that American companies must take responsibility when their technologies are weaponized and used to commit harm across the globe,' the press statement said. 'Corporations must be held accountable when its unlawful decisions made in the name of profit directly cause the death of innocents and widespread human suffering.' For chip firms, the litigation could get costly if more civilians join, with the threat of a loss potentially forcing changes that could squash supply chains currently working to evade sanctions. 'We want to make this process so expensive and painful that companies are forced to act,' Watts said. 'That is our contribution to stopping the war against civilians.'

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