iS Prime, a prime-of-prime broker, and retail FX/CFDs broker ThinkMarkets have settled their exclusivity lawsuit at the last minute. The settlement was reached on Tuesday, the expected trial date, according to Law360.
In 2017, iS Risk (formerly known as IS Prime Risk Services), the risk management unit of iS Prime, acquired Think Liquidity from ThinkMarkets. Later, a court case arose, and IS Prime sued ThinkMarkets for $15 million in damages. IS Prime accused ThinkMarkets of violating their exclusive ‘liquidity agreement’ entered during the acquisition by using other brokers’ services for trade execution between January 19, 2017, and January 19, 2020.
ThinkMarkets denied the claim against them and stated that they received an email from iS Prime on December 8, 2017, informing them that the swap business was being transferred to their Hong Kong affiliate on December 18. As a result, ThinkMarkets believed that iS Prime was no longer trading index swaps and therefore fulfilled their obligation under the agreement for that particular product. On the other hand, iS Prime disagreed with this and believed that the terms of trade between the two companies remained in full effect.
Last year in May, a British court had a second hearing regarding iS Prime’s case against ThinkMarkets. iS Prime tried to dismiss part of ThinkMarkets’ counterclaim, but the court rejected this attempt. In March of the same year, another court ruled that iS Prime’s legal action against ThinkMarkets would not succeed regarding the trading of index swaps after December 18, 2017.
iS Prime Demands Retraction
On Wednesday, iS Prime shared a statement stating that they are satisfied with the settlement terms reached with ThinkMarkets. They expressed that the agreement validated their position; however, they did not disclose all the deal terms.
As part of the settlement, iS Prime requires Mohammed Adil Siddiqui, healed of compliance at ThinkMarkets, to offer a written statement retracting their inaccurate and baseless accusations. The retraction can be shared with iS Prime’s clients.
iS Prime, the prime-of-prime broker, stated that the result validated their stance. iS Prime will proceed as usual and sustain its exceptional service to clients.
