The General Court Of The European Union Confirms The Commission’s Decision To Accept The Commitments Of Thomson Reuters Intended To Remedy Its Abuse Of A Dominant Position In The Market For Consolidated Real-Time Datafeeds

Consolidated real-time datafeeds’ provide banks and financial institutions with market data from a variety of sources. Banks and financial institutions use the data in numerous IT applications and programs for transaction and monitoring purposes.

An investigation initiated by the Commission in 2009 showed that Thomson Reuters, a Canadian company, occupied a dominant position in the worldwide market for consolidated real-time datafeeds. In that regard, the Commission found that ‘Reuters Instrument Codes’ (short, alphanumerical codes developed to identify securities and their trading locations – RICs) gave rise to substantial barriers for customers who wished to switch providers. According to the Commission, Thomson Reuters prohibited its customers from using RICs to retrieve data from the consolidated real-time datafeeds offered by other providers and prevented third parties and competing providers from developing and updating mapping tables incorporating RICs that would allow its customers’ systems to interoperate with the consolidated real-time datafeeds of other providers. The Commission accordingly concluded that this amounted to an abuse of a dominant position.

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