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The Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) has been ordered to pay Binance $15,000 for undertaking an "unreasonable probe" into the cryptocurrency exchange.

The Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that the OSC overstepped its authority when it ordered Binance to hand over large amounts of internal communication documents as part of an investigation.

The court said that the Ontario securities regulator's summons was too broad and "unconstitutional" as it violated protections under Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

As a result, the OSC has been ordered to return the seized documents to privately held Binance and pay $15,000 to the exchange as part of the cost of the appeal.

The case stems from a 2024 probe into Binance's operations to check whether or not the cryptocurrency exchange had broken securities laws in Canada.

As part of the investigation, the Commission asked Binance to present documents that involved "all communications regarding Ontario or Canada" dating back to 2021.

The request to produce a multi-year record of all communications as part of the probe was successfully challenged by Binance.

The company, which facilitates trading in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: $BTC ) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: $ETH ), argued that the order was "so overbroad as to be unconstitutional."

In the end, the Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Binance. The panel said that the OSC's request violates the Charter when it comes to regulatory investigations as Binance has a right to privacy.

The Ontario Securities Commission has been known to enforce legal actions against crypto firms operating both within and outside of its borders.

In 2022, the OSC acted against crypto exchange Bybit for conducting business in Ontario without a proper securities license.

The case resulted in a settlement in which Bybit paid $2.5 million in penalties and left the Canadian market.

Due to the country's strict crypto regulations, several major exchanges have chosen to leave or avoid the Canadian market, including Gemini (NASDAQ: $GEMI ).

As a private company, Binance's stock does not trade on a public exchange.