> My understanding is this was not enforceable in Europe, and maybe elsewhere

"Not enforceable" just means they can't sue you. It doesn't mean they can't say "We won't sell to you anymore".

Code 43 was a worldwide thing before we found a workaround.

They did it by limiting the supply of cards. Even if you are ready to pay 4x of MSRP, you can't buy 100 of the card at once. Many consumers bought 1 GPU at 2-4x of MSRP.