EU consults on Thomson Reuters bid to close antitrust probe

(BRUSSELS) - European Union competition regulators said Thursday they were consulting third parties on new proposals by Thomson Reuters to end an antitrust inquiry over its securities identification codes.

The European Commission opened a probe in 2009 on its own initiative to check whether the Canadian news and financial data firm had abused its dominant market position in relation to Reuters Instrument Codes (RICs).

These are special alphanumerical codes that identify securities and are used by financial institutions to retrieve data from the firm's real-time datafeeds.

The Commission was concerned that Thomson Reuters was abusing its position by "prohibiting customers from using RICs for retrieving data from alternative providers".

Replacing the codes is technically difficult and costly.

The media firm has submitted new proposals, however, extending the scope of its license and reducing the fee. The Commission has published the concessions on its website and is inviting comment for the next four weeks.

"If the outcome of the market test were to show that the commitments address the competition concerns, the Commission could make them legally binding on Thomsone Reuters," the EU executive said.