The Chicago Board Options Exchange, the largest U.S. options exchange, won a legal battle in July against New York-based International Securities Exchange (ISE) that ensures the CBOE remains the only exchange in the country to offer options contracts on the S&P 500 (SPX) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJX) indexes.
The CBOE filed a lawsuit in Illinois against the ISE and the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) nearly four years ago seeking to stop both the ISE from listing or offering a market for trading options linked to those indexes and the OCC from clearing those trades.
The ruling, issued by the Circuit Court of Cook County, did just that when it determined that the CBOE holds an exclusive license to list and trade options on the S&P 500 and the DJIA indexes.
The court also said that the OCC, which clears trades on all U.S. options exchanges, may not clear trades of options on SPX and DJX unless those trades occur under the CBOE’s license.
The ISE has said it plans to appeal the decision.
The legal wrangle began in 2006 with ISE first filing a complaint in a New York District Court seeking to end the CBOE’s exclusive hold of certain index options. However, the ISE never actually listed any options on the contested indexes. |
