A technician in the server room of the Sberbank PJSC data processing center at the Skolkovo Innovation Center, Moscow, in 2017. The European Union passed new legislation regulating the sale of surveillance technologies in 2021. | BLOOMBERG

European companies have sold controversial surveillance technologies to countries known for violating human rights, a new report has found.

The findings indicate that European Union regulations introduced in 2021 to rein in exports of the technology are not being properly enforced, according to the report, published Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based nonprofit obtained trade data and found that at least six EU member states — including Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland and Poland — had sold surveillance technologies to more than two dozen countries with documented histories of human rights violations, including repression of activists and journalists.

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