What Does Overruling Chevron Mean for Transnational Litigation?
For the past forty years, under Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council (1984), courts have deferred to an agency’s interpretation of a federal statute when the statute is ambiguous and the agency’s interpretation is reasonable. On June 28, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Chevron. In Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, the Court…
Continue ReadingVirtual Workshop: Beyond the Presumption Against Extraterritoriality
Next Tuesday (July 2), TLB Editor Maggie Gardner will present at the Hamburg Max Planck Institute’s virtual monthly Current Research in Private International Law workshop. The talk, which is open to the public (register here), will begin at 8:00 am EST and will be followed by an open discussion. Here is a description of Maggie’s…
Continue ReadingThrowback Thursday: Empagran’s Complicated Legacy
Twenty years ago tomorrow, on June 14, 2004, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. v. Empagran S.A. The majority opinion, authored by Justice Stephen Breyer, interpreted the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act of 1982 (FTAIA) to preclude the application of U.S. antitrust law to injuries in other countries. Empagran…
Continue ReadingFourth Circuit Applies Recent Supreme Court Decision on RICO Injuries
In Percival Partners Ltd. v. Nduom, the Fourth Circuit (Judge Harris, joined by Judge Thacker and Judge Richardson) applied last Term’s decision in Yegiazaryan v. Smagin (2023) to conclude that the plaintiffs’ alleged RICO injury was impermissibly extraterritorial. In an analysis that embraced Yegiazaryan’s contextual approach to siting RICO injuries, the Fourth Circuit held that…
Continue ReadingSecond Circuit Allows Securities Claims Against Crypto-Asset Exchange
In Morrison v. National Australia Bank (2010), the U.S. Supreme Court applied the presumption against extraterritoriality to § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act, holding that this provision applies only to transactions in the United States. Morrison’s transactional test has proven difficult to apply to unlisted securities that do not trade on an exchange. In…
Continue ReadingAbitron on Remand
Last year, in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc., the Supreme Court held that the federal trademark statute—known as the Lanham Act—applies only to domestic conduct infringing U.S. trademarks. A group of Austrian and German companies collectively known as “Abitron” placed U.S.-protected trademarks owned by a U.S. company, Hetronic, on products made in Europe. Some of…
Continue ReadingFederal Circuit Reconsiders Extraterritorial Patent Damages
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Brumfield v. IBG LLC suggests that U.S. patent holders may be able to obtain damages for foreign activities that flow from domestic acts of infringement proscribed by 35 U.S.C. § 271(a). This is a new development: as the Federal Circuit explained, the Supreme Court’s extraterritoriality analysis in WesternGeco LLC…
Continue ReadingDistrict Court Permits Clean Air Act Action Against Canadian Company
The presumption against extraterritoriality is the principal tool that U.S. courts use to determine the reach of federal statutes. Last year, in Abitron Austria GmbH v. Hetronic International, Inc. (2023), the U.S. Supreme modified the presumption by requiring conduct relevant to a provision’s focus to occur in the United States in order for the application…
Continue ReadingThe U.S. Takes the Fight Against Bribery to Foreign Officials
American companies, U.S. issuers, and persons in the United States have long been barred from bribing foreign officials under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). But until December 2023, no U.S. law directly penalized those foreign officials for soliciting or taking bribes. With the enactment of the Foreign Extortion Prevention Act (FEPA), buried deep within…
Continue ReadingAnother Victory for Mexico in Guns Litigation
Still flush with success from its win at the First Circuit against U.S. gun manufacturers, Mexico has scored a new victory in federal court—this time, against U.S. gun dealers. In Estados Unidos Mexicanos v. Diamondback Shooting Sports, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona (Judge Rosemary Márquez) ruled that Mexico could move…
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