According to lawyers, several areas stand out where the extraterritoriality of U.S. laws is particularly noticeable. Let us name just a few: combating illegal money laundering; protecting human rights; fighting corruption of all kinds; combating terrorism; protecting competition (laws preventing the emergence and development of monopolies); and fighting dishonest taxpayers. The United States is also interested in protecting intellectual property rights, preventing the unauthorized sale of nuclear weapons, and regulating the stock markets.
Extraterritorial laws also include legislative acts passed in the past by the U.S. government imposing economic sanctions aimed at curbing “undesirable” actions by Iran, China, Cuba, and Venezuela. To date, the United States has imposed sanctions affecting a total of 14 countries... Recall that back in the 1970s, the last century, the United States was intent on disrupting a gas transportation deal (some remember it as the “deal of the century”) that the USSR and Western European companies wanted to conclude.
It involved the sale to the Soviet Union of pipes and fittings for pipeline construction, including safety valves and compressors. At that time, we provided our own nuclear power plants, and the wedge gate valve for nuclear power plants was not of interest to the Soviet Union, but even the listed contract items were a breakthrough at the time. Washington tried to use various levers of influence to prevent the deal, but it ultimately went through.
Certain U.S. laws signed quite a long time ago are only now displaying the extraterritorial potential built into them. An example is the U.S. law aimed at fighting foreign corruption. The FCPA became law back in 1977 and is considered the first regulatory act in history to prohibit bribery of foreign officials. In fairness, there were not many precedents for its use until recently. The impetus for the adoption of this law was a scandal that broke out at the same time, in 1977.
Today, the United States so frequently imposes and applies sanctions aimed at reducing activity in countries and enterprises it dislikes, and those cooperating with them, that similar laws are being passed even by individual states, not just federal authorities.
Based on materials from the website of CJSC “Avangard”