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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 132 / Wednesday, July 14, 2021 / Notices
lotter on DSK11XQN23PROD with NOTICES1

means that all Members and nonMembers utilizing the 10Gb fiber connection would have to migrate their connections to either the 1Gb fiber connection or the 10Gb ULL fiber connection. Members and non-Members utilizing the 10Gb fiber connection could perform the migration from April 12, 2021 until June 30, 2021.
The Exchange now proposes to amend the Fee Schedule to remove references and fees associated with the 10Gb fiber connection. The Exchange proposes to remove the references to the 10Gb fiber connection from the tables in Sections 4cd of the Fee Schedule, which are related to Member and non-Member network connectivity testing and certification fees. The Exchange will continue to offer the 10 Gb ULL
connection and does not propose to amend the fees for Member and nonMember network connectivity testing and certification. The Exchange also proposes to amend the tables in Sections 5ab of the Fee Schedule, related to Member and non-Member monthly network connectivity fees, to remove the fee columns for the 10Gb fiber connection.
2. Statutory Basis The Exchange believes that its proposal to amend its Fee Schedule is consistent with Section 6b of the Act 5
in general, and furthers the objectives of Section 6b4 of the Act 6 in particular, in that it is an equitable allocation of reasonable fees and other charges among its members and issuers and other persons using its facilities. The Exchange also believes the proposal furthers the objectives of Section 6b5
of the Act in that it is designed to promote just and equitable principles of trade, to remove impediments to and perfect the mechanism of a free and open market and a national market system, and, in general to protect investors and the public interest and is not designed to permit unfair discrimination between customers, issuers, brokers and dealers.
The Exchange believes the elimination of the 10Gb fiber connection fee and related rule text is reasonable because the Exchange will no longer offer this functionality as of July 1, 2021, thus making the fees irrelevant going forward. The Exchange notes that, because the 10Gb fiber connection is outdated technology and that Members options-and-miax-pearl-options-reminder-andupdates-deprecation-10g-ll and https
www.miaxoptions.com/alerts/2021/03/29/miaxoptions-and-miax-pearl-options-3rd-reminderdeprecation-10g-ll.
5 15 U.S.C. 78fb.
6 15 U.S.C. 78fb4 and 5.

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and non-Members have other connectivity options, the Exchange planned to phase out this connectivity service in its entirety on or before July 1, 2021.7
The Exchange believes the proposed change is reasonable, equitably allocated and not unfairly discriminatory because the Exchange has experienced a steady decrease in the number of Members and non-Members that purchase the 10Gb connection over the past few years. Further, as a consequence of more firms choosing to purchase the 10Gb ULL connection over the 10Gb connection, the Exchange believes that, if it did not decommission the 10Gb connections, it would be unable to provide the current level of support to those firms that have such connections. The Exchange notes that from the time the Exchange initially issued its notice that it would decommission the 10Gb connection to now, 11 Members and 2 non-Members migrated their 10Gb connections to 10Gb ULL connections.8 The Exchange also believes the proposed changes are reasonable as the Exchange provided Members and non-Members six months notice that the Exchange planned to make these changes. During that time, Members and non-Members had the ability to make the business decision to:
1 Switch to the Exchanges 1Gb or 10Gb ULL connections; 2 access the Exchange through another Exchange Member as a Sponsored User; 9 or 3 no longer access the Exchange. Market participants can also choose from 15
competing options markets. In the event that a market participant views the Exchanges connectivity and access fees as more or less attractive than competing markets, that market participant can choose to connect to the Exchange indirectly or may choose not to connect to the Exchange and connect instead to one or more of the other 15
options markets.
Further, the Exchange notes that there is no regulatory or legal requirement for any Member or non-Member to connect to the Exchange. It is a business decision of each Member and nonMember whether to connect to the Exchange and, if so, whether to connect via 1Gb, 10Gb, or 10Gb ULL connection.
The Exchange believes the proposed rule change to remove the fees and rule text related to the 10Gb fiber connection is reasonable as the Exchange has observed a minimal amount of Members supra note 4.
Exchange notes that no Member or nonMember transferred from the 10Gb connection to a 1Gb connection and no Member or non-Member disconnected from the Exchange.
9 See Exchange Rule 210.

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7 See
8 The
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and non-Members utilize the 10Gb fiber connection and, therefore, the continuation of this connectivity alternative does not warrant the infrastructure and ongoing Systems maintenance required to support this connectivity alternative. The Exchange notes that its affiliate, MIAX Emerald, LLC MIAX Emerald, never offered the 10Gb fiber connection as a connectivity alternative. The Exchange believes that the proposed rule change is equitable and not unfairly discriminatory because the Exchange will no longer offer the 10Gb connection to all Members and non-Members while continuing to offer both 1Gb and 10Gb ULL connectivity to all.
B. Self-Regulatory Organizations Statement on Burden on Competition The Exchange does not believe that the proposed rule change will impose any burden on competition not necessary or appropriate in furtherance of the purposes of the Act. The proposed changes eliminate the fees and related rule text that apply to the 10Gb fiber connection, which the Exchange will no longer offer as of July 1, 2021.
As noted above, while there are a very small number of Members and nonMembers that utilized the 10Gb fiber connection, Members and non-Members are not required to utilize this connectivity alternative. As discussed above, decommissioning of the 10Gb connection should have minimal to no impact on Members and non-Members as those Members that utilize a 10Gb connection have other means to access the Exchange, either by to transitioning to the 1Gb or 10Gb ULL connection, or access the Exchange through a Sponsored User. Accordingly, the Exchange does not believe that its proposal imposes any burden on intramarket competition, or places certain market participants at a relative disadvantage compared to other market participants.
In terms of inter-market competition, the Exchange notes that it operates in a highly competitive market in which market participants can readily favor competing venues if they deem fee levels at a particular venue to be excessive, or rebate opportunities available at other venues to be more favorable. In such an environment, the Exchange must continually adjust its fees to remain competitive with other exchanges. Because competitors are free to modify their own fees in response, the Exchange believes that the degree to which fee changes in this market may impose any burden on competition is extremely limited.

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