The General Court of the European Union has upheld (6 November) the European Commission’s decision to fine Crédit Agricole and Credit Suisse for their involvement in a cartel manipulating suprasovereign, sovereign, and agency (SSA) bond markets in the European Economic Area. The banks engaged in coordinated trading and pricing strategies through trader chatrooms and other means from 2010 to 2015, affecting SSA bonds denominated in U.S. dollars.
In 2021, the European Commission imposed fines totaling €28.4 million on Crédit Agricole, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America. Deutsche Bank was granted immunity for its cooperation, sparing it from penalties. Crédit Agricole and Credit Suisse challenged the fines, arguing that the Commission’s findings and fine calculations were flawed.
The General Court dismissed Credit Suisse’s appeal entirely. For Crédit Agricole, the Court slightly amended the Commission’s timeline, confirming its participation in the cartel from January 11, 2013, rather than January 10, but maintained its €3.9 million fine.
The Court’s ruling underscores that the banks’ conduct constituted a single, continuous anticompetitive infringement and upheld the Commission’s method for calculating fines based on SSA bond trading volumes rather than traditional turnover. The decision confirms that the Commission correctly identified an anticompetitive objective without needing to demonstrate specific market effects.
This ruling reaffirms EU regulators’ stringent stance on anti-competitive practices within financial markets.
Source: https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2024-11/cp240186en.pdf
