Reported by the China Fortune Finance app, on Wednesday local time, the European Union's second-level high court supported the EU antitrust competition regulatory agency in a long-standing case, ruling against HSBC, the British banking giant, in the EU cartel fine appeal of 31.7 million euros (approximately 33.4 million US dollars).

As the authoritative regulatory body for market competition in the EU, the European Commission imposed regulatory fines in 2021, stating that HSBC, JPMorgan, and French agriculture crediting bank participated in a cartel organization manipulating the eurozone interbank offered rate in 2007.

The General Court confirmed the European Commission's modified regulatory judgment against HSBC. Maintaining the fine amount of 31.739 million euros, the Luxembourg court stated after rejecting all of HSBC's arguments.

According to European regulatory requirements, HSBC can appeal to the Court of Justice of the European Union (the highest-level EU court), which is higher in level than the aforementioned second-level high court.

The EU antitrust enforcement agency initially imposed a fine of 33.6 million euros on HSBC in a decision in 2016, but the General Court canceled this penalty in 2019, stating that the regulatory agency failed to provide sufficient reasons.

The European Commission subsequently issued a second ruling in 2021, reducing the fines to a certain extent.

The European Commission stated that seven major commercial banks colluded between September 2005 and May 2008, attempting to manipulate the eurozone interbank offered rate benchmark at the time to increase profits or reduce risk exposure. The eurozone interbank offered rate serves as the benchmark reference for financial products such as interest rate swaps, interest rate futures, savings accounts, and mortgages.

It is understood that deutsche bank, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), and Societe Generale of France all admitted to improper financial market misconduct in exchange for significantly reduced fines, while another British banking giant Barclays bank acted as a 'whistleblower', exposing the EU cartel's violations and thus escaping massive penalties.

The EU, USA, and UK regulatory authorities have imposed fines of billions of euros on these large commercial banks for manipulating benchmark interest rates and foreign exchange markets.

The case is T-561/21, known as the 'HSBC and Others v European Commission' case.