Netcoalition v. Securities & Exchange Commission

715 F.3d 342, 404 U.S. App. D.C. 427, 2013 WL 1798998, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 8693
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedApril 30, 2013
DocketNos. 10-1421, 10-1422, 11-1001, 11-1065
StatusPublished
Cited by44 cases

This text of 715 F.3d 342 (Netcoalition v. Securities & Exchange Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Netcoalition v. Securities & Exchange Commission, 715 F.3d 342, 404 U.S. App. D.C. 427, 2013 WL 1798998, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 8693 (D.C. Cir. 2013).

Opinion

KAREN LeCRAFT HENDERSON, Circuit Judge:

In 2010, three securities exchanges, NASDAQ, NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) and NYSE Area — the intervenors in this case — filed with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) proposed changes to their fee-setting rules for the acquisition of certain proprietary market data. Two trade associations, Net-Coalition and the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (collectively the petitioners), requested the Commission to suspend the rules pursuant to its authority under section 19(b)(3)(C) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (Exchange Act), 15 U.S.C. § 78s(b)(3)(C) (2006 & Supp. IV 2011), contending that they are unlawful under NetCoalition v. SEC, 615 F.3d 525 (D.C.Cir.2010) (NetCoalition I). When the SEC failed to do so, the petitioners sought review in this Court. Concluding that the Congress’s recent overhaul of the Exchange Act dubbed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub.L. No. 111-203, 124 Stat. 1376 (2010) (Dodd-Frank Act), ousts us of jurisdiction, we dismiss the petitions.

I

In NetCoalition I, we reviewed a Commission order approving intervenor NYSE Area’s change to one of its market data fee rules. Concluding that the order was arbitrary and capricious because the Commission’s reasoning was deficient, we vacated and remanded it to the Commission for further approval proceedings. NetCoalition I, 615 F.3d at 544. But the Congress intervened. Responding to the national financial downturn affecting the securities markets in 2008, the Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Act. Before that Act, the Exchange Act required the Commission to approve a change in market data fee rules before such change became effective. See 15 U.S.C. § 78s(b)(l) (2006). The Commission approved such a change only if, after notice and comment, it found that the “proposed rule change [was] consistent with the requirements of the” Exchange Act. Id. § 78s(b)(2). The Dodd-Frank Act, however, abandoned the approval requirement. Changes to rules setting fees for market data now “take effect upon filing with the Commission.” 15 U.S.C. § 78s(b)(3)(A) (2006 & Supp. IV 2011). The Commission retains the authority to suspend a rule change “if it appears to the Commission that such action is necessary or appropriate to the public interest, for the protection of investors, or otherwise in furtherance of the purposes of’ the Exchange Act. Dodd-Frank Act § 916(c)(2)(A), 124 Stat. at 1835 (codified at 15 U.S.C. § 78s(b)(3)(C) (2006 & Supp. IV 2011)). A suspension triggers the requirement for notice-and-comment approval proceedings. Id. § 916(c)(2)(B), 124 Stat. at 1835 (codified at 15 U.S.C. § 78s(b)(3)(C) (2006 & Supp. IV 2011)).

After our remand in NetCoalition I, the three intervenors filed with the Commission changes to certain rules establishing fees for various market data products. Before proceeding to the specific rule changes at issue in this case, we briefly lay out the relevant statutory framework.

A.

As national securities exchanges, the intervenors are self-regulatory organizations (SROs). See 15 U.S.C. § 78c(a)(26) (2006) (defining SROs). They therefore “have ‘a duty to promulgate and [430]*430enforce rules governing the conduct of [their] members/ under the oversight of the SEC.” Standard Inv. Chartered, Inc. v. Nat’l Ass’n of Sec. Dealers, Inc., 560 F.3d 118, 119 (2d Cir.2009) (quoting Barbara v. N.Y. Stock Exch., Inc., 99 F.3d 49, 51 (2d Cir.1996)); see also Silver v. N.Y. Stock Exch., 373 U.S. 341, 352-53, 83 S.Ct. 1246, 10 L.Ed.2d 389 (1963) (discussing SRO’s duty of self-regulation). Exchanges must file their rules with the SEC and ensure compliance therewith. See 15 U.S.C. § 78f(b)(l) (2006). Section 6 of the Exchange Act requires that the rules of national securities exchanges, inter alia, “provide for the equitable allocation of reasonable dues, fees, and other charges among its members and issuers and other persons using its facilities”; “promote just and equitable principles of trade”; and do not “permit unfair discrimination between customers, issuers, brokers, or dealers” or “impose any burden on competition that is not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of’ the Exchange Act. 15 U.S.C. § 78f(b)(4), (5), (8) (2006).

Section 11A imposes additional requirements for rules setting fees for the acquisition of market data. Added to the Exchange Act in 1975, section 11A sets out “to facilitate the establishment of a national market system for securities,” Securities Acts Amendments of 1975, Pub. L. 94-29 § 7(a)(2), 89 Stat. 97, 112 (codified at 15 U.S.C. § 78k-1(a)(2) (2006)), and, inter alia, “to link securities markets nationwide in order to distribute market data economically and equally and to promote fair competition among all market participants.” NetCoalition I, 615 F.3d at 528. To ensure the wide availability and equitable dissemination of market data, section 11A requires exclusive processors of proprietary market data such as the intervenors, see 15 U.S.C. § 78c(a)(22)(B) (2006) (defining exclusive processors), to distribute that data on terms that are “fair and reasonable” and “not unreasonably discriminatory.” Id. § 78k-l(c)(l)(C), (D) (2006).

Pursuant to its section 11A mandate, Bradford Nat’l Clearing Corp. v. SEC, 590 F.2d 1085, 1094 (D.C.Cir.1978), the Commission has promulgated a series of regulations ensuring the wide availability and dissemination of market data. It has established two categories of data — core and non-core. See Order Setting Aside Action by Delegated Authority and Approving Proposed Rule Change Relating to NYSE Area Data, Release No. 34-59039, 73 Fed. Reg. 74,770, 74,779 (Dec. 9, 2008) (N.Y. SE Area Order). Core data, which “form the heart of the national market system,” Regulation NMS, Release No. 34-51808, 70 Fed. Reg. 37,496, 37,503 (June 29, 2005) (quotation marks omitted), is reported by the exchanges to data processors, which then consolidate it into a single stream of data for each NMS stock. 17 C.F.R. §§ 242.601-.603. Because the SEC requires exchanges to provide this data, the SEC has determined that fees charged for core data “need to be tied to some type of cost-based standard in order to preclude excessive profits if fees are too high or underfunding or subsidization if fees are too low.” Regulation of Market Information Fees and Revenues, Release No.

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Bluebook (online)
715 F.3d 342, 404 U.S. App. D.C. 427, 2013 WL 1798998, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 8693, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/netcoalition-v-securities-exchange-commission-cadc-2013.