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UK: ICE to appeal CMA’s decision on Trayport

By  |  November 1, 2016

Intercontinental Exchange will appeal a UK antitrust ruling that its purchase of an energy trading software platform hurt competition, saying the watchdog’s decision was “simplistic” and “set a terrible precedent”.

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    Jeff Sprecher, ICE chief executive, said the Competition and Markets Authority’s decision compelling the US exchanges operator to sell the Trayport business it bought for $650m was based on “a vague and speculative theory”.

    It “relied on a simplistic assessment of market dynamics … and largely on the views of conflicted third parties that have a competitive interest in the outcome”, he told analysts on Tuesday.

    The CMA’s ruling last month was the first time it had demanded a company sell an asset it had bought since the watchdog replaced the merged Office of Fair Trading and Competition Commission in 2014.

    Trayport is the main platform that connects traders, brokers and companies to the energy market’s electronic trading and clearing systems. About 70-80 per cent of European utilities trades flows through it.

    Full Content: Financial Times

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