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BRUSSELS—European regulators gave shipping companies
including A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S and TUI AG’s Hapag-Lloyd
AG guidance on how to exchange information without
violating competition rules, a move aimed at lowering
prices.
A
decision by European Union (EU) governments to abolish
an antitrust exemption for agreements in which
competitors set common rates for scheduled shipping in
order to maintain regular service takes effect in
October. It covers shipping into or from the 27-nation
EU.
The
European Commission, the EU’s antitrust regulator, said
Tuesday that new guidelines will help operators of
unscheduled maritime transport, known as tramp shipping,
set up agreements to pool their services in line with
the changed rules.
“The
tramp market delivers all the basic materials to the
economy,” said Alfons Guinier, secretary-general of the
Brussels-based European Community Shipowners’
Association. “The more efficient pooling services will
bring the best price for users of coal, oil and grains.”
Shipping
companies will be allowed to exchange information under
certain conditions, commission spokesman Jonathan Todd
told journalists at a regular briefing. Capacity and
demand data must be about the sector as a whole and
can’t cover individual companies. The information has to
be historical and can’t be issued on a monthly basis,
Todd said.
Abolishing the conferences—an arrangement dating to the
1870s—will let customers negotiate directly with ship
owners for carriage of freight. The commission will have
the same power to bust price-fixing cartels by shipping
companies as in any other area of business.
“By
providing guidance to maritime operators on EU
competition rules, these guidelines mark a significant
step toward better enforcement in the maritime sector,”
competition commissioner Neelie Kroes said in the
statement from Brussels.
Peter
Camesasca, a partner at Howrey Llp. and lawyer for the
European Liner Affairs Association, a Brussels-based
trade group for marine-transport companies, said the
October expiration of the antitrust exemption is a
“satisfactory result” considering that the commission
had proposed abolishing the conferences by the end of
2005.
The
European Shippers’ Council, a trade group for customers
of the liners, welcomed the guidelines, saying it will
“closely monitor” the European Liner Affairs
Association’s information exchanges.
The
carriers “have to carefully assess their own behavior,”
Nicolette van der Jagt, the group’s secretary- general,
said in an e-mailed statement. “Some of this makes it
clear that carriers will be walking on very thin legal
ice.” (Bloomberg) |
