NEWSLETTER-2019-metin

97 COMPETITION LAW European Commission’s Foreign Exchange Spot Trading Cartel Decisions* Att. Ecem Susoy Uygun Introduction On 16 May 2019, the European Commission (“Commission”) has fined Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Citigroup, JPMor- gan and MUFG Bank (formerly Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi) for taking part in two cartels in the Spot Foreign Exchange market for 11 cur- rencies that are the most liquid and traded currencies worldwide – the Euro, British Pound, Japanese Yen, Swiss Franc, US Dollar, Canadian Dollar, New Zealand and Australian Dollars, and Danish, Swedish and Norwegian crowns 1 . The first decision rendered by the Commission is on so-called Forex-Three Way Banana Split cartel, and it imposed a total fine of €811,197,000 on Barclays, RBS, Citigroup and JPMorgan. The second decision concerns the so-called Forex-Essex Express cartel, upon which the Commission imposed a total fine of €257,682,000 on Barclays, RBS and MUFG Bank. Although the UBS was involved in these cartels and was the addressee of these two decisions, since it applied for leniency to the Commission and revealed the existence of the cartels, it benefited from immunity from fines (€285 million). Exchange of Commercially Sensitive Information between the Competitors: A Breach of Competition Law Co-operation has a ‘horizontal nature’ if an agreement is entered into between actual or potential competitors 2 . Although information * Article of June 2019 1 http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-2568_en.htm (Access date 18.06.2019). Any references in this Newsletter article regarding the two decisions of the Com- mission are referred to in the Commission’s Press Release dated 16.05.2019. 2 Guidelines on the applicability of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning