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Nasdaq’s actions did not constitute abuse

Nasdaq’s actions against its competitor Burgundy’s attempt to move into a data centre in Lunda in Stockholm did not constitute abuse of dominant position. This is made clear in a judgment by the Patent and Market Court of Appeal.

Like the Patent and Market Court, the Patent and Market Court of Appeal finds Nasdaq not guilty of any wrong-doing.

“I can conclude that the court has come to a different conclusion than the Competition Authority did. We will now analyse the judgment to see what lessons we can draw,” says the Swedish Competition Authority’s Director-General Rikard Jermsten.

Burgundy had negotiated with Verizon to locate its trading system at a data centre in Lunda where Nasdaq had its trading systems for its Nordic markets and where a number of important stock market clients already had their trading equipment. The Competition Authority claimed that Nasdaq had put pressure on the data centre provider, Verizon, to not offer Burgundy space at the data centre. According to the Competition Authority, this forced Burgundy to locate its trading system at another data centre in Stockholm, thus reducing Burgundy’s possibilities to effectively compete with Nasdaq.

The court found that Nasdaq’s actions did not limit competition since Burgundy was not regarded as an effective competitor to Nasdaq at the time of the conduct.

In 2015 the Competition Authority lodged an official application for summons against Nasdaq. During the proceedings, the Swedish Competition Authority requested that Nasdaq pay an administrative fine for abuse of dominance of approximately SEK 28 million.

The court has now finally found that Nasdaq’s actions were not an infringement of the competition rules. The judgment cannot be appealed.

 

Last updated: 2021-05-06

News2 july 2019