The complainant asked the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) to give public access to exchanges with the European Commission on the preparation of 'equivalence decisions' in relation to UK law. ESMA identified a number of documents as falling under the request but granted access only to parts of three documents. In refusing to disclose the remainder, ESMA invoked an exception under the EU's legislation on public access to documents, arguing that disclosure could undermine international relations.

The Ombudsman opened an inquiry and sought to inspect the documents in question.