The Sherman Act’s Increasingly Long Arm

Courts grapple with questions raised by the "inelegantly phrased" Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act of 1982.

As competition has become more global in nature, so too has the focus of U.S. antitrust enforcement. The Department of Justice's (DOJ's) number-one enforcement priority is to discover, punish, and deter international cartels that harm U.S. consumers. Private antitrust litigation in the United States is also increasingly focused on conduct straddling national borders. The Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act of 1982 (FTAIA), 15 U.S.C. § 6a, limits the extraterritorial reach of the U.S. antitrust laws by excluding from its purview all foreign conduct except for conduct "involving" (a) "import commerce" and (b) commerce with a "direct, substantial and reasonably foreseeable effect" on domestic commerce, import commerce, or certain export commerce. This statute's "convoluted language" and "awkward phrasing"¹ have become the focus of