Bloomberg and UBS settle data misuse suit
Bloomberg Finance has agreed to settle a lawsuit against UBS over claims the Swiss investment bank misused proprietary financial data.
Bloomberg sued UBS in 2018, claiming the bank was allowing its customers to access a “vast trove of proprietary Bloomberg data” through its UBS Delta product.
This was in violation of contracts governing UBS’ access to the data via the Bloomberg Terminal product, Bloomberg alleged.
Bloomberg decided to sue after learning from UBS that the Swiss bank would no longer use the company as a source of market data.
“In light of UBS’s conceded past and ongoing violations of the global agreements, and its persistent refusal to provide sufficient information regarding any efforts to halt that misuse, Bloomberg believes ... UBS will disclose Bloomberg’s data to Bloomberg’s competitors,” the complaint said.
UBS rejected the allegations, arguing that its use of the data was consistent with the terms of the licence agreements made with Bloomberg.
A 1998 deal allowed for the “use of the licensed Bloomberg data by UBS in its internal applications and systems, the distribution of limited data to customers and prospective customers in the normal course of its business,” the bank claimed.
“Bloomberg’s alleged ‘fear’ of future events that have not come to pass does not state an actionable claim for breach of contract,” UBS added.
The two parties have now informed the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that they have reached a settlement. Terms of the deal have not been publicly disclosed
The court dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Bloomberg’s claims cannot be litigated again.
Bloomberg earlier this year saw off a lawsuit accusing it of misappropriating an artificial intelligence (AI) company’s trade secrets.
In January, the Southern District court threw out the last remaining claims brought by iSentium, which accused Bloomberg of using its trade secrets to develop its own application for analysing social media posts.
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