Europe's second-highest court has upheld a monopoly abuse charge brought by the European Commission against Deutsche Börse's settlement arm Clearstream five years ago.
In 2004, the Commission found that Clearstream had taken two years to provide Euroclear with access to certain clearing services that usually took months to implement, and charged a higher per transaction price to Euroclear Bank than to other securities depositories outside Germany.
Noting that the infringements had come to an end, the Commission stepped back from imposing a fine on Clearstream, which nevertheless appealed the ruling before the Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
In a statement, the court says: "The Court of First Instance dismisses the action brought against the Commission's decision, finding that Clearstream unlawfully refused to provide certain financial services to Euroclear..
"Clearstream abused its dominant position on the market in the provision of primary clearing and settlement services related to securities issued in Germany."
Deutsche Börse says it will decide whether to appeal the judgement after reviewing the details.