Litigation Team Files Amicus Brief in D.C. Cir. on Behalf of ICI

On January 3, 2022, Ropes & Gray filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Nasdaq Stock Market LLC v. SEC, No. 21-1167 on behalf of the Investment Company Institute, the leading association representing regulated funds. In this case, the D.C. Circuit is evaluating the legality of two SEC orders that modernize and improve access to equity market trading data by, among other things, mitigating the conflicts of interest that arise from certain self-regulatory organizations that both administer the nation’s public equity market data and sell proprietary products that compete with this data.  

The team’s amicus brief urged the Court to uphold the SEC’s orders because they effectively address these conflicts of interest by providing representation to other market participants, such as investors, that provide and consume market equity data. The brief also argued that these changes support the public interest, and Congress’s intent, in having prompt, accurate, reliable, and fair public market equity data as contemplated by the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934.

Ropes & Gray partners Doug Hallward-Driemeier, Rob Skinner and Amy Roy led the team that submitted the brief.