Cite as: 531 U. S. 341 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
causes of action claiming that petitioner and AcroMed made fraudulent representations to the FDA as to the intended use of the bone screws and that, as a result, the devices were improperly given market clearance and were subsequently used to the plaintiffs' detriment. The District Court dismissed these "fraud-on-the-FDA" claims, first on the ground that they were expressly pre-empted by the MDA, and then, after our decision in Medtronic, on the ground that these claims amounted to an improper assertion of a private right of action under the MDA.1 See 159 F. 3d, at 821.
A divided panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed, concluding that plaintiffs' fraud claims were neither expressly nor impliedly pre-empted. We granted certiorari, 530 U. S. 1273 (2000), to resolve a split among the Courts of Appeals on this question, see Kemp v. Medtronic, Inc., 231 F. 3d 216, 233-236 (CA6 2000) (identifying split and holding such claims expressly pre-empted), and we now reverse.
II
Policing fraud against federal agencies is hardly "a field which the States have traditionally occupied," Rice v. Santa Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U. S. 218, 230 (1947), such as to warrant a presumption against finding federal pre-emption of a state-law cause of action. To the contrary, the relationship between a federal agency and the entity it regulates is inherently federal in character because the relationship originates from, is governed by, and terminates according to federal law. Cf. Boyle v. United Technologies Corp., 487 U. S. 500, 504-505 (1988) (allowing pre-emption of state law by federal common law where the interests at stake are "uniquely federal" in nature). Here, petitioner's dealings with the FDA were prompted by the MDA, and the very subject matter
1 The District Court also determined that the plaintiffs' fraud claims failed for lack of proximate cause, see In re Orthopedic Bone Screw Products Liability Litigation, 159 F. 3d 817, 821 (CA3 1998), but that question is not presently before us.
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