The New British Invasion: Will the UK Bribery Act of 2010 Eclipse the FCPA?

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act outlaws bribes to obtain business from foreign governments, and it only targets the person or company paying the bribe. The U.K. Bribery Act of 2010 attacks corruption in a different way. The U.K. law (1) is not limited to acts of corrupting foreign governments, but applies to commercial bribery as well; (2) subjects persons receiving the bribe to prosecution; (3) criminalizes an organization's failure to prevent bribery; and (4) applies to conduct occurring anywhere in the world, even if unconnected to the United Kingdom. The result is that foreign laws now subject U.S. citizens to prosecution in foreign lands for conduct that has the most tenuous relationship to the foreign venue.