This is the thing, and the same goes in reverse. You only have to care about complying if you officially do business there (e.g., if someone buys your product f

This is the thing, and the same goes in reverse. You only have to care about complying if you officially do business there (e.g., if someone buys your product from a third-party without an official relationship with you, you're generally safe). Companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, Ford, etc (and VW, Zeiss, etc in the inverse) comply because they themselves directly operate in foreign regions. And smaller manufacturers do because they have a relationship with a distributor.