EU Almunia: Thomson Reuters Investigation Parallels Deutsche-NYSE

The same concerns that led the European Union to block the merger of Deutsche Boerse AG (DB1.XE) and NYSE Euronext (NYX) are behind an investigation into Thomson Reuters Corp. (TRI.T), said European Union Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia Thursday.

"If we are to foster growth in Europe, then we need to create optimal conditions for businesses to operate," he said in prepared remarks in Copenhagen. "It is because we wanted to preserve healthy competitive pressure that we prohibited the merger between Deutsche Boerse and NYSE a few weeks ago."

He added that the "ensuing monopoly would have harmed customers," and that is why the Commission has launched an antitrust investigation into Thomson Reuters.

"We have concerns that Thomson Reuters has potentially abused a dominant market position by restricting the usage of its identification codes RICs (Reuters Instrument Codes), thereby limiting the ability of its customers to switch to competing data providers," said Almunia. He also said that the Commission recently "unsuccessfully market tested a solution offered by Thomson Reuters to facilitate switching."

Almunia added that the EU's recent approval of a merger between Google Inc. (GOOG) and Motorola (MMI) "does not bless all actions by Motorola in the past or all future action by Google" to the use patent cross-licences from competitors on terms they would otherwise not have agreed to.

He said that competition authorities should intervene to ensure patents are not used to block competition, and that this is at the core of the case the EU has opened against Samsung. In addition, similar complaints have arisen by Apple and Microsoft against Motorola.

-By Riva Froymovich, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1489; riva.froymovich@dowjones.com

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