In 1945 in the Alcoa case, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the prohibitions which the 1899 Sherman Act imposed on agreements in restraint of trade and commerce extended not only to those made within U.S. jurisdiction but also to those which had effects there, wherever they were made. This is the classic (although not the first) U.S. claim to extraterritorial jurisdiction. It has brought it into conflict with a large number of States, and the conflicts continue. Recently, the British Government protested at the U.S. court’s assumption of jurisdiction in Freddie Laker’s action for treble damages against seven major airlines for conspiring to put him out of business. There were similar reactions from both the French and the British to U.S. attempts to interfere with contracts entered into in Europe for the supply of equipment for the Siberian gas pipeline.