CBOT, CME Dodge Investors’ Antitrust Suit

The Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange didn’t violate the Commodity Exchange Act and federal antitrust law by “engag[ing] in agreements with high frequency trading firms to erode the integrity of the marketplace and manipulate prices,” says a federal district court (Braman v. The CME Grp., Inc., N.D. Ill., 1:14-cv-02646, 12/3/15).

A putative class of investors had sued CBOT and CME claiming they used “information asymmetry” and “clandestine incentive agreements” in order to “create a two-tiered marketplace” that harmed both the public and future marketplace participants.

In particular, they claimed that the defendants ...