Thomson Reuters hit by EU probe into datafeeds
THE European Union has launched a probe into financial data provider Thomson Reuters over fears that it is threatening competition by locking customers into its services.
European Commission competition regulations said antitrust investigators would look at whether Thomson Reuters was abusing its market dominance by making it hard for customers to use third-party software to translate Reuters’ codes.
The probe will focus on real-time market datafeeds of trading prices which Thomson Reuters supplies to banks. The feeds use Reuters Instrument Codes (RICs) to identify the feeds.
The Commission is concerned that customers are unable to use competing datafeeds alongside the Thomson Reuters service because it restricts its codes.
“There are three… competitors in this area and none of them have this restriction,” the Commission said.