Presupuesto para el plan promocional con proyecciones a 5 años

(136) The provision of market data has developed into a stand-alone business activity as investment decisions are often based on detailed information. Market data are information products consisting of the current pricing or historical performance of particular assets, other data, and news. The Commission analysed this product area in two previous cases.

(137) In Reuters/Telerate69, the Commission divided market data products into separate markets for: (i) the provision of real-time market data to end-users (“RTMD”); (ii) the supply of price and reference data to middle- and back-office functions; (iii) the supply of market data platforms; and (iv) the supply of foreign exchange order management software. While recognizing that the provision of RTMD could be further subdivided by reference to the type of asset, the Commission ultimately left the market definition open in this regard.

(138) In Thomson/Reuters70, the Commission went further into the segmentation. More precisely, it found that individual content sets are not substitutable and therefore it identified various content sets as separate relevant product markets. Among these

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According to the settled case law, it cannot be presumed that the law of the European Union will not be complied with by the merged entity. See paragraph 159 of the Judgment of the Court of first instance of 25 October 2002 in the Tetra Laval BV v Commission case (T-5/02, ECR 2002 p. II-4381 where it is stated that, "although the Regulation [4064/89] provides for the prohibition of a merger creating or strengthening a dominant position which has significant anti-competitive effects, these conditions do not require it to be demonstrated that the merged entity will, as a result of the merger, engage in abusive, and consequently unlawful, conduct."

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Case No. COMP/M.3692, Reuters/Telerate.

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segments, there are: (i) real-time data feeds71, (ii) market data platforms, (iii) other content sets.

(139) In the current case, the Notifying Parties propose that when an exchange is a provider of market data, the following market data services should be distinguished: (i) the provision of proprietary trade-related information("proprietary market data"), namely information generated on an exchange, such as real-time pricing and trading volume data, and for which that exchange is the sole provider; and (ii) the provision of non- proprietary market information ("non-proprietary market data"), namely general data not generated on a trading venue (such as data on macroeconomic variables such as GDP, unemployment, or inflation) and data resulting from further processing and/or aggregation of proprietary data originally generated on trading venues (such as "consolidated feed" products). According to the Notifying Parties, this distinction has not been considered by the Commission in its previous cases, where no exchange was involved and, therefore, only the market for non-proprietary market data was analysed. (140) The market investigation confirmed that the Notifying Parties each provide exchange-

specific information that is not capable of being replicated by market data services provided by other exchanges or venues.

(141) As regards the geographic market definition, in the decisions mentioned in Recitals (137) and (138), the Commission found that the markets for separate content-types were at least EEA-wide and probably world-wide in scope. The Notifying Parties agree with this definition with respect to the market for non-proprietary market data and they submit that the market for proprietary market data is world-wide.

(142) In any event, the exact product and geographic market definition can be left open for the purpose of this Decision, since the notified transaction does not raise competition concerns under any possible market definition with regard to the horizontal effects of the notified transaction in market data.

8.1.2. Index Licensing

(143) Market data may also be collated into indices, which are information products that measure changes in the value or performance of a group of investment products. Indices can be used as a source of information or as a benchmark against which to assess the performance of a given financial instrument. Indices can also fulfil an “underlying” function in which the index serves as a reference price for tradable investment products, such as ETFs and derivatives. To this end, an index provider creates and licenses branded indices and provides the composition and weighting data of the index to issuers of ETFs and structured products, as well as derivatives exchanges, and in some cases clearing-houses, which base their products or services on the index.

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In Thomson /Reuters, although recognising the existence of two types of real-time datafeeds, consolidated real-time datafeeds and direct real-time datafeeds, and the existence of competition constraints exerted by direct real-time datafeeds on consolidated real-time datafeeds, the Commission did not take a final position as to whether consolidated and direct feeds were two separate markets or whether they belonged to a single product market.

(144) The Notifying Parties argue that such activities are separate from the supply of indices as a form of market data: in particular, the customer groups for each service would be different and, even where customers both purchase index data and license an index for a tradable product, these are generally separate transactions. Accordingly, the Notifying Parties submit the existence of a separate market for index licensing, which would be global in scope.

(145) Within this market, according to the Notifying Parties, it would not be appropriate to segment on the basis of different customer groups. Irrespective of this, market shares have been provided for any possible market definition in this respect.

(146) The Notifying Parties also contend that a segmentation according to the type of index, namely between the various national equity indices and “pan-European” equity indices72 would not be relevant for market definition purposes, in particular because of the high degree of supply-side substitutability between different types of indices. Market shares have not been provided on this basis73. Only data on the Notifying Parties' turnover has been provided. Nevertheless, as highlighted in Section 10 on Derivatives, concerns were raised as regards the possible vertical link between index licensing and equity index derivative trading and clearing. These are analysed in that context in that Section.

(147) The Commission's investigation has shown, however, that there is no supply-side substitution due to IP rights and that whilst a new index can indeed be launched in competition, on the licensing side, with other indices, the chance of such an index to obtain commercial success in competition with the indices traded on the platforms of the Notifying Parties would depend inter aliaon the existence (or likely existence) of a liquid market in futures and options on that index. The investigation has also shown that indices based on baskets of stocks of different nationalities do not compete, but that there is competition in terms of licensing between indices based on a broad basket of European blue chip stocks, including between the Stoxx (including Eurostoxx) and Eurofirst families of indices.

(148) It is therefore concluded for the purposes of this Decision that distinct relevant markets exist for the creation and licensing of indices composed of stocks from each of the national markets concerned, namely for German, Dutch, Belgian, Portuguese, French and UK stock indices. It is further concluded that a distinct relevant market exists for the creation and licensing of indices composed of a broad basket of stocks from a variety of EEA member states.

(149) The Notifying Parties have argued that the geographic market for index licensing is global in scope74. However, it could also be argued that the market is only EEA-wide or

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A "national index" is a share-based index representing the value of shares from a selected number of companies or investment products listed in a given Member States. A "pan-European index" is also a share-based index, but with a European wide selection of shares.

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The Notifying Parties submit that they are unable to provide estimates of share data for separate product categories comprising national indices and pan-European indices. Given that the majority of index providers offer several indices (and in some cases even their entire index “family”) at a single price, the Notifying Parties are unable to reasonably estimate the proportions of the total licence fees paid that should be allocated between the multiple indices licensed by customers.

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even, as regards the national indices (or certain of them), national in scope. However, this point can be left open since, regardless of the conclusion on this point, the competitive analysis is the same.