District Court Grants Summary Judgment in Favor of CME

Skadden secured a summary judgment ruling in a 15-year-old antitrust lawsuit filed by the United States Futures Exchange (USFE), the former U.S. subsidiary of Eurex, against the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), now both a part of Skadden client CME Group. The lawsuit alleged that in 2003 CME and CBOT conspired to hinder Eurex’s attempt to launch USFE, which was designed to dominate the global U.S. Treasury futures market. CME and CBOT disputed the allegations, maintaining that their actions were legal and that USFE failed on the merits of the competition to dislodge the U.S. Treasury futures market from CBOT. U.S. District Judge Thomas Durkin of the Northern District of Illinois granted CME’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed the lawsuit in its entirety.