Barclays Plc and major U.S. stock exchanges won dismissal of investor lawsuits in which pension funds and other investors accused them of rigging markets at their expense to benefit high-frequency traders.
The exchanges are “absolutely immune” from a lawsuit based on “their creation of complex order types and provision of proprietary data feeds,” U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan said on Wednesday in rejecting the claims.
In a 51-page decision, Furman also said the plaintiffs did not show they reasonably relied on Barclays' misrepresentations about the safety of its Barclays LX "dark pool," including that they were not at risk of being exploited by hiqh frequency traders.
The lawsuit's defendants including Barclays, Nasdaq, New York Stock Exchange, BATS Global Markets and Chicago Stock Exchange.