Many feared that Congress would take the opportunity in connection with the U.S. financial reform legislation now known as the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act to authorize private actions for aiding and abetting securities law violations.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently addressed for the first time the extraterritorial reach of the primary antifraud provision of the securities laws, § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act. The Court rejected the analysis developed by lower courts over the course of forty years and adopted its own bright-line rule: § 10(b) applies only to securities transactions that occur in U.S. territorial jurisdiction and purchases and sales of securities listed on U.S. exchanges.