Thomson Reuters may have to share technology

Thomson Reuters Corp. may have to share part of its real-time financial-market data provision technology with competing providers for a fee, to settle European Union concerns that it is abusing its dominant market position.

Matina Stevis and Frances Robinson of Dow Jones Newswires reports, “The European Commission said Thursday it is market-testing a second set of commitments offered by Thomson Reuters as part of an investigation into the news and business data provider that began in late 2009.

“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 Thomson Reuters.

“The company has substantially revised its commitments proposal to address shortcomings identified by market players in a first market test, the commission said.

“The investigation is focused on the company’s Reuters Instrument Codes, or RICs, which identify securities used by financial institutions to retrieve data from its real-time data feeds.

“About 55% of Thomson Reuters’ annual revenue comes from its general financial-services bundle, part of which is attributed to its real-time financial-data provision.

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