Business secrecy: a new lever of U.S. extraterritorial power?

Little noticed in Europe, however, a decision made in July 2024 by a U.S. federal judge confirmed a symbolic turning point: the application of the Defend Trade Secrets Act 2016 to acts committed abroad, since part of the concealment took place on U.S. soil. This decision has, at least so far, enshrined the extraterritoriality of business secrecy as a new instrument of American legal power. The secrecy of business had already developed in the U.S…