Foreign-Company Lobbyists Would Need to Register Under Proposed DOJ Regulation

Alex Langton was quoted in The National Law Journal about the U.S. Justice Department’s proposed changes to the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

The proposed regulatory change to FARA’s commercial exemption “doesn't really take into account a lot of the practical realities associated with foreign companies doing business in the United States,” Alex said. “And I think that this is going to be a pretty impactful change for those multinational corporations.”

Under the proposed changes to FARA’s commercial exemption, if the DOJ determines that an individual’s activity predominantly serves a foreign rather than an American entity, he or she would need to register as a foreign agent. But the department has not articulated what criteria it would use to make that judgment, according to Alex. For multinational companies especially, it “may be really hard to parse out distinct interests of the U.S. subsidiary and the foreign parent.”

The changes to the commercial exemption don't “really take into account a lot of the practical realities associated with foreign companies doing business in the United States,” she added. “And I think that this is going to be a pretty impactful change for those multinational corporations.”

As the proposed changes were introduced under the Biden administration and will be finalized by the Trump administration, Alex said, “it’s kind of unclear right now how the incoming administration may direct DOJ to address these issues.”