CFTC Wins Key Ruling: Kraft and Mondelēz Ordered to Hand Over Trading Records

**CFTC WINS KEY RULING ON FOOD GIANT’S TRADING DATA**

The Seventh Circuit has ordered Kraft and Mondelēz to hand over internal trading records to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, ending a two-year battle over how much information the regulator can demand from commodity-market participants. The decision strengthens the CFTC’s hand in enforcement actions that could soon spill into digital-asset markets.

The dispute began in 2018 when the CFTC subpoenaed Kraft and its snack-food spinoff for documents related to wheat futures trading in 2011. The companies resisted, arguing the agency had already closed its investigation and was fishing for unrelated material. A district judge sided with the firms, quashing the subpoena. The CFTC then asked the appeals court to intervene through a rare writ of mandamus, claiming the lower court had effectively nullified its statutory power to gather evidence.

Writing for the Seventh Circuit, the judges ruled that the CFTC’s authority under the Commodity Exchange Act is broad and extends to any documents “reasonably relevant” to an ongoing or reopened inquiry. They found the district court had exceeded its discretion by substituting its own judgment for the agency’s. The panel ordered the companies to comply within 30 days, signaling that courts should give wide latitude to the regulator’s document requests.

The ruling narrows the grounds on which firms can refuse CFTC subpoenas, effectively telling market participants that once the agency opens a file, it can keep digging until it decides to close it. For companies accustomed to treating investigative demands as negotiable, the decision raises the cost of stonewalling.

Because the CFTC already claims jurisdiction over bitcoin, ether, and event contracts traded on designated contract markets, the precedent could be used to demand trading ledgers, wallet keys, and internal communications from crypto exchanges and DeFi protocols that touch U.S. futures or derivatives. Firms that treat CFTC requests as optional may now face faster enforcement escalations and higher legal spend.

The message to traders and token issuers is blunt: if you touch a CFTC-regulated product, assume your data is an open book.