As momentum builds behind transparency regulations in much of the world, a US court has backed a challenge by big oil companies and ordered revisions to new regulations issued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 
The US District Court for the District of Columbia ruled on 2 July that the SEC must provide better justifications for some of the transparency regulations it issued under Section 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Act. The court ruled that the SEC had misinterpreted Dodd-Frank when drawing up regulations that would have forced oil companies to disclose details of payments to governments.