EU takes Standard & Poor’s to court
The European Commission has launched legal action against US business information group Standard & Poor’s (S&P) for breach of EU regulations.
EU regulators believe that S&P could be abusing its monopoly position by charging EU-based financial groups a license fee to use international securities identification numbers (ISIN) that allow access to information from services such as Thomson, Reuters, and Bloomberg.
ISINs are unique identification numbers for securities (shares, bonds, etc.) issued around the world.
Standard & Poor’s is the only agency to receive information from all US securities issuers.
It licences this information to market information services, and charges a licencing fee to each financial group using the ISINs that identify companies referred to in this information.
The EU executive said investors are being charged to access a database they don’t use because they need the ISINs to make day-to-day trades.
S&P denies the charges, saying the EU’s case is ‘without merit’.
Charges for accessing information are ‘wholly transparent’ and in line with industry practices, an S&P spokesperson said.
Category: Insurance News, Legal News
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