Swedish court backs Nasdaq in data centre wrangle

A Swedish court has dismissed years-old allegations that Nasdaq abused a dominant market position to prevent rival exchange operator Burgundy from renting space in a data centre.

Bank-owned Burgundy inked a contract with data centre operator Verizon in 2010 but the American firm quickly cancelled the deal, citing a “one exchange” policy. The one exchange was Nasdaq, which controlled the part of the data centre where trading took place, locating its trading engine there.

Burgundy reported Verizon to Sweden’s competition authority, which ended up taking the case against Nasdaq to the courts.

Seven years on, the Swedish Patent and Market Court has ruled that Nasdaq did not have any legal obligations to give Burgundy access to the part of the data centre it controlled, nor Nasdaq’s customers located there, nor to the financial infrastructure that Nasdaq had invested in and controlled.

“The Court states that Nasdaq has acted in accordance with its contractual rights and not used a dominant position to secure advantages that Nasdaq would otherwise not be able to secure,” says a statement.

The consortium of Swedish banks and brokerages that set up Burgundy in 2008, specifically to challenge Nasdaq’s dominance, ended up selling up to Oslo Børs in 2012.