The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today announced settled charges against Bloomberg Tradebook LLC for making materially false and misleading statements regarding the speed with which it displayed market data from U.S. options exchanges.

According to the SEC’s order, Tradebook distributed marketing materials to its customers and potential customers stating that market data was provided to customers at speeds “in fractions of seconds.”

However, during the period from September 2018 through at least June 2019, these statements were false and misleading because Tradebook was displaying U.S. Options Market Data to customers that the firm knew was subject to regular delays lasting as long as several minutes during periods of high data volumes.

Thus, certain U.S. Options Market Data was at times provided at speeds that were much slower than “fractions of seconds.” When U.S. Options Market Data was delayed, those delays averaged approximately 23 seconds.

Despite Tradebook’s knowledge of those delays, the firm failed to adequately inform customers of the delays or correct the marketing statements about data speeds that it continued to distribute.

The SEC’s order finds that Tradebook violated Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act. Without admitting or denying the SEC’s findings, Tradebook consented to the issuance of a cease-and-desist order and agreed to pay a civil penalty of $5 million.