Law360, New York ( April 19, 2013, 4:51 PM EDT) -- Appellate briefs were recently filed in the case of U.S. v. AU Optronics Corporation[1] pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which raise issues of critical importance in the prosecution of foreign cartel cases in the U.S.: (1) whether Section 1 of the Sherman Act[2] applies extraterritorially to price-fixing meetings that occurred outside of the United States; and, if so, under what circumstances; and (2) in criminal cases involving foreign price-fixing activities, should the "rule of reason" apply, or should the per se rule apply? The resolution of these issues could have a major impact on a number of current U.S. Department of Justice investigations and in civil cases involving international cartels....