EU to Probe Control of Financial-Market Data, Almunia Says

European Union regulators, who are investigating 16 investment banks over the swaps market, will examine the “control and dissemination” of financial-market data for possible antitrust abuses.

The European Commission will investigate whether data providers are engaging in abusive behavior by “attempting to leverage privileged access to information,” Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said in a London speech today. “I also intend to discuss the legitimate scope of intellectual property rights claims on such data,” Almunia said.