Yet the central challenge for Robinhood may be to thrive in a market that bars the trading mechanism that powered its rise in its home market. Instead of charging fees for trades, Robinhood profits in the US from accepting rebates for sending client orders to big market makers such as Citadel Securities. Critics consider so-called “payment for order flow”, or PFOF, a conflict of interest. UK regulators barred PFOF in 2012 and the EU is phasing in a similar ban. Martin Sandler, a partner at law firm Eversheds Sutherland, said large commission-free brokers in the US expanding into Europe would have to “rethink their business model” and how they were being paid.

https://www.ft.com/content/6f62535d-e05d-4acd-b767-186f1956ef2c