EU's Almunia urges Thomson Reuters cooperation in probe

A man walks near a Thomson Reuters logo at the Thomson Reuters building in Canary Wharf in east London May 7, 2009.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's antitrust chief urged news and information provider Thomson Reuters (TRI.TO) on Monday to work with regulators to resolve an investigation into its instrument codes for shares.

The European Commission opened an investigation into Thomson Reuters's instrument codes, used to identify specific stocks, in November 2009, saying the company may have breached EU rules on abuse of a dominant market position.

"I take this opportunity to encourage the company to work with us for a speedy resolution of the case," EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said in the text of a speech to be delivered at the Cass Business School in London.

He said it was time for regulators to examine the control and dissemination of market data to establish whether there was abusive behaviour by owners seeking to leverage privileged access to information to foreclose rivals or distort the market.

Almunia said he was against any one group controlling essential infrastructure such as trading, clearing or pre-trading platform.

(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee)