Liner shipping companies gain advantages from an exemption from EU competition law, which enables them to collaborate. The exemption called ‘The Consortia Block Exemption Regulation’ is to expire on April 25, 2020. In light of its expiry, ITF gathered stakeholders from the containerised maritime supply chain for a Stakeholder Meeting, on 8 February 2019 in Paris, France, for further review.
Specifically, the stakeholders gathering represent the shipping sector, shippers, ports, terminals, freight forwarders, port service providers and inland waterway transport.
Generally, the ITF has published a report called ‘The Impact of Alliances in Container Shipping‘ according to which it assesses the impact of global alliances in container shipping. It highlights how alliances work, how they affect maritime transport systems and transport stakeholders, and how they are currently regulated.
In addition, representatives from the US, France, Italy, Denmark and Israel also participated in the meeting.
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Through the meeting the participants had the chance for exchange to support the European Commission in carrying out its review. The European Commission participated with a delegation of eight representatives, including Henrik Mørch, Director at DG Competition of the European Commission.
As the expiration date of the exemption approaches, the European Commission established a process to assess the impact and the relevance of this regulation. The process will provide evidence for determining whether the exemption should be expired or be prolonged and under which conditions.
Mainly, the shipping sector wants the exemption to remain as is. On the contrary, the rest of the stakeholders proposed changes to it.
Yet, the majority of the stakeholders, didn’t rule out repeal, if such changes weren’t implemented.
All the stakeholders, except those from the shipping sector, supported that they’re concerned of a lack of transparent data on consortia, their performance and their effects.
The discussion focused on more data being available on the sector.
This could be used by the regulator to monitor consortia, such as data provided directly by the lines. On the other hand, stakeholders also expressed interest in publicly available data on performance and aspects that directly impact their activities.
Concluding, ITF reports that the European Commission collects much less information on consortia than the US, but does not seem intent to collect more data on a regular basis.
