During OOB data import for contact entity, when �Company Name� column is present in the import file then any lookup (let it be OOB or custom field) values are not binding during the create pipeline (which means pre create, core operation, post create). Ideally, all values present in the import file should come as part of create pipeline (since new records) but only other field type values are appearing in the create pipeline not the lookup values. For lookup values, an update event been triggered forcibly by OOB and these lookup values alone are coming as part of update pipeline and gets updated in the respective record. Same can be verified via Audit history as there will be create entries with no lookup values and after that an update entry with lookup values gets updated. Due to this behavior, there is no option of registering any validation on create pipeline for data import. For note, this behavior is only with respect to Data import and works fine during manual creation/update via UI or service call. Also this has been verified in a new CRM vanilla version (without any customization) and got into the same issue.