Canada's Competition Bureau has closed its investigation into allegations that exchange operator TMX Group abused its dominance in relations to securities market data.
The allegations were made last year by Aequitas, a new stock exchange backed by a consortium of financial services firms that is trying to compete with TMX's Toronto Stock Exchange, which dominates the Canadian market.
In its bid to win business, Aequitas had planned to launch a lower priced, consolidated market data product for traders. But, the firm alleged, some of the clauses in contracts between TMX Group and investment dealers prevent the dealers from sharing private market data with third parties such as Aequitas, without the express written consent of TMX Group.
The Competition Bureau found that TMX Group has indeed refused requests by investment dealers to share private market data.
"However, in considering the effect of this conduct on competition, the Bureau concluded that the conduct would be unlikely to violate the abuse of dominance provisions of the Competition Act," says a statement.
Therefore, the investigation has been closed with no conclusion of abuse of dominance, a decision TMX has welcomed, adding that it "remains firmly committed to conducting business with integrity in full compliance with the Competition Act and in keeping with our public interest mandate".