Shipping companies operating internationally face three distinct compliance obligations that have become more operationally significant in recent years: EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) reporting, CII (Carbon Intensity Indicator) monitoring, and counterparty sanctions screening.
Each obligation is separate. Each has different regulatory bodies, reporting timelines, and technical requirements. And many shipping companies are still managing them through disconnected tools, manual processes, or after-the-fact spreadsheets.
This creates a category of operational risk that is entirely avoidable.
The EU Emissions Trading System is a carbon pricing mechanism that applies to shipping companies operating vessels into, out of, or between European Economic Area ports. Under EU ETS, shipping companies must purchase and surrender carbon allowances (EUAs) corresponding to the verified CO2 emissions of their voyages.
What EU ETS compliance requires:
The obligation began phasing in from January 2024. Companies that fail to surrender sufficient EUAs face financial penalties per excess tonne of CO2.
The Carbon Intensity Indicator is an IMO (International Maritime Organization) framework that rates vessels on their carbon intensity relative to their transport work. CII applies to vessels of 5,000 gross tonnage and above operating internationally.
What CII compliance requires:
CII ratings affect a company's commercial positioning. Charterers, cargo owners, and financial institutions are increasingly factoring CII ratings into charter terms, insurance conditions, and lending covenants.
Counterparty sanctions screening is the process of checking entities involved in a transaction against global watchlists maintained by bodies including OFAC (US), OFSI (UK), the EU, and the UN. Entities screened include cargo charterers, cargo receivers, port agents, vessels, flag states, and beneficial owners.
What sanctions compliance requires:
A single sanctions violation can result in significant financial penalties, transaction blocking, and reputational damage. The risk is not theoretical. Enforcement actions in shipping have increased materially over the past five years.
When EU ETS tracking lives in one tool, CII monitoring requires manual calculation or a separate system, and sanctions screening means logging into a third-party database before each transaction, compliance becomes a process rather than a capability.
Processes fail when team members are under time pressure. They fail when data is not in front of the person who needs to act. They fail at the handoff between systems.
The more effective approach is to embed compliance into the platform where the operational decisions are being made. When a fixture is being negotiated, the sanctions check should be automatic. When a voyage closes, the EU ETS obligation should be calculated in the same system. When a CII rating changes, the finance team should see it alongside the fleet P&L.
Marlo includes sanctions screening, CII monitoring, and EU ETS emissions tracking natively in every plan. There is no add-on purchase and no third-party compliance tool required.
Before a cargo is fixed, a charter is signed, or a payment is processed, Marlo checks the counterparty against global sanctions lists automatically. EU ETS obligations are calculated alongside voyage data as the voyage progresses. CII scores are monitored alongside fleet financials in the same dashboard.
Compliance is not a separate process on Marlo. It is part of the platform.
Learn more at marlo.co/sanctions