The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers asked a federal court to modify or scrap U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules governing so-called conflict minerals.

The SEC adopted a regulation in August that requires companies using gold, tin, tungsten and tantalum in their products to make "reasonable" efforts to determine if those materials came from the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country. Business groups have complained the measure is burdensome, costly to administer and ineffective.

Trade in those minerals — used in electronic devices — is helping to finance conflict and contributing to a humanitarian crisis in the central African nation, according to the SEC.