The European Court of First Instance has tossed Deusche Borse AG subsidiary Clearstream Banking AG’s challenge of a European Commission decision finding that it abused its dominant market position. The court confirmed a 2004 EC decision finding that 1) Clearstream had a dominant position in the market for primary clearing and settlement; 2) Clearstream’s monopoly of custody services resulted in a corresponding monopoly of clearing and settlement services; and 3) Clearstream banking and Clearstream International abused their dominant positions by not providing Euroclear access to the services it had requested for more than 2 years while taking months to provide access to other customers. In its decision the CFI pointed out the special responsibility of undertakings in a dominant position not to allow their conduct to impair genuine undistorted competition, and Clearstream’s charging a higher per-transaction fee to Euroclear than to other similar customers amounted to discriminatory pricing prohibited by EC law.