The French postal service, for example, has used it to help its workers choose the best delivery routes, and pharmaceutical researchers are using it to determine molecular structures by combining their gut instincts with known results stored in a database.
The decision is a rebuke to the Obama administration, which argued that some 90, 000 drug reps and so-called detailers across the pharmaceutical industry should be covered under the 1938 law designed to protect workers from exploitation and excessive hours.
The decision also reflects growing concern that the pharmaceutical industry is being probed by the feds for making bribes to foreign government workers.