17.V.4 Making available data free of charge 15 minutes after publication

MiFID II has introduced the requirement that MiFID II equity pre- and post-trade data should be made available by RMs, MTFs, and APAs free of charge 15 minutes after publication.1 The ESMA assessment in the MiFID II Review can be divided in two elements, namely general and specific observations. As a general observation, ESMA believes that – based on the feedback received from respondents – the MiFID II objective of making equity pre- and post-trade data available free of charge 15 minutes after publication has not been achieved, although some improvements have been made. ESMA is in particular not fond of the standard practice implemented by many RMs, MTFs, and APAs to comply only with the provisions concerning retail investors, thereby not allowing commercial users to benefit from free of charge equity pre- and post-trade data 15 minutes after publication.2 The ESMA proposals aim to improve the current ESMA Q&A on making data available free of charge 15 minutes after publication.3