Press Release: Antitrust: Commission market tests Thomson Reuters’ commitments on Reuters Instrument Codes

The European Commission has invited comments on commitments offered by Thomson Reuters to address concerns that its licensing practices in relation to the Reuters Instrument Codes (RICs) may be in breach of EU antitrust rules.

RICs are codes that identify securities, used by financial institutions to retrieve data from Thomson Reuters' real-time datafeeds. The Commission has concerns that Thomson Reuters is abusing its dominant market position in the market for consolidated real-time datafeeds by prohibiting customers from using RICs for retrieving data from alternative providers and mapping them for such a purpose to alternative symbols. Thomson Reuters has offered to allow customers to license RICs for the purpose of switching and to use RICs for retrieving data from other providers against a license fee. If the market test confirms that the proposed commitments remedy the competition concerns, the Commission may adopt a decision under Article 9 of the Antitrust Regulation 1/2003, making the commitment legally binding on Thomson Reuters.

Reuters, 21.7.12: The European Commission will consult customers and competitors of Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) on the company's revised plan to address competition concerns over the use of codes to identify financial data on its system http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/uk-thomsonreuters-eu-idUKBRE86B0DQ20120712

European Commission: RAPID: Press Release: IP/12/777: Antitrust: Commission market tests improved commitments on Reuters Instrument Codes http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/12/777&format=PDF&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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