Following its decision on Helsinki Exchanges, made January 8, the FCA finds that the FCSD holds a dominant position at least as a clearing service provider in Finland for public securities trading at Helsinki Exchanges. The FCA considers the payments collected by the FCSD for delay in the clearing operations to be discriminatory to clients and not based on costs. Thus the FCA finds the payments to be abuse of dominant position.
Based on its investigation the FCA does not find it necessary to impose a competition infringement fine on the FCSD nor to refer the matter to the Competition Council.
In evaluating the need for a competition infringement fee, the FCA has taken into consideration that the FCSD has actively developed its delay payment system to more a equal and cost-based direction.
The FCA holds that the FCSD must by January 31, 2002 remove all aspects in the delay payments that violate the Act on Competition Restrictions and report to the FCA on all changes made to the delay payments system.
HEX disagrees with the FCA on the market definition of FCSD on the same basis as on the earlier market definition of Helsinki Exchanges. In HEX's view, competition between marketplaces and clearing houses has tightened and also the market for clearing operations exceeds national market. In this broadly defined market, HE X does not hold a dominant position as defined by the Act on Competition Restrictions.
