South Africa's Constitutional Court has dismissed the Competition Commission's long-running case alleging foreign-exchange rigging involving 28 banks, effectively ending a decade-long legal dispute.
The court's judgment, issued on June 30, determined that the regulatory body had fundamentally misunderstood the mechanics of currency markets by treating indicators of an efficient, electronically networked trading environment as evidence of collusion.
The decision marks the final chapter in a complex legal saga that had previously seen the Competition Appeal Court rule on aspects of the case in January.
By overturning the lower court's findings, the Constitutional Court has cleared the banks of the allegations, which had cast a shadow over the financial sector's operations in South Africa for years.
The case centered on the interpretation of trading data in the foreign-exchange market.
The court found that the synchronized movements and tight spreads observed in the market were consistent with normal, efficient electronic trading rather than coordinated anti-competitive behavior.