Extraterritorial jurisdiction most often refers to laws that are applied to activities, businesses, and persons located outside the United States. These activities, businesses, and persons may or may not involved Americans, but they are subject to U.S. laws reaching beyond U.S. territorial boundaries. Laws regarding antitrust, securities, export control, EMPLOYMENT, and TRADEMARKs provide good examples of U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction. The SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT does so by being specifically applicable to U.S. “foreign commerce.” Extraterritorial jurisdiction has been extremely controversial among U.S. trading partners. Many, including Britain, France, Canada, and Australia, have enacted “blocking statutes” intended to make it difficult to apply U.S. laws extraterritorially. These statutes typically deny access to documents, people, and information; deny enforcement of U.S. extraterritorial judgments; and sometimes retaliate by authorizing in local courts actions for DAMAGES against successful U.S. extraterritorial plaintiffs. In an increasingly integrated global economy, the effects of business are often felt beyond territorial boundaries. The EUROPEAN UNION applies its competition (antitrust) laws extraterritorially, doing so specifically to block the U.S.-based General Electric/Honeywell merger in 2001, although U.S. antitrust authorities had already approved that same merger. Resolving extraterritorial conflicts like this one is a major problem. The United States has “antitrust cooperation” agreements with Canada, Australia, Germany, and the European Union, which attempt to reduce the potential for conflicts over extraterritorial jurisdiction in that field.
See also ANTITRUST LAW.