The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court's dismissal of a
private class-action lawsuit brought under the CEA. The class
alleged that defendant oil companies manipulated the foreign
benchmark for the price of Brent crude oil.
In upholding the dismissal, the Second Circuit held that the CEA
did not permit the suit against the defendants for alleged conduct
in Europe. The Court rejected the argument that the non-U.S.
trading at issue was under the jurisdiction of U.S. courts because
it had an indirect effect on pricing of U.S. futures contracts.
Characterizing this argument as "resembl[ing] a falling row of
dominoes commencing in the North Sea," the Court held that
upholding such an "attenuated" theory would constitute an
impermissibly extraterritorial application of the CEA that would
allow the CEA to "rule the world."
