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Liner
shipping companies have lost another
round in the fight to preserve their
antitrust immunity, with a
long-awaited report on maritime
regulation calling for an end to
special treatment for shipping
lines.
The
Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development has
overridden shipping industry
protests and reaffirmed its
opposition to the antitrust immunity
enjoyed by liner operators.
Despite
industry outrage over its draft
report on the subject, the OECD has
repeated its calls for an end to
shipping industry exemption from
antitrust provisions in such as
areas as price-fixing and freight
rate negotiations.
This
latest setback follows recent
dismissal of court appeals against
European Commission rulings which
narrowed the legal activities of
conferences.
Announcing
the newly released final version of
its report, Competition Policy in
Liner Shipping, the OECD insists:
“Liner shipping should no longer
be granted antitrust immunity for
price-fixing and freight rate
discussions as there is no
convincing evidence that these
practices offer more benefits than
costs to shippers.”
The
OECD offered member governments
three principles to guide their
policy-making in the liner shipping
sector, indicating that it
considered that they were valid even
if governments opted to maintain
antitrust exemptions. These are:
-
Freedom
to negotiate rates, surcharges
and other terms of carriage on
an individual and confidential
basis;
-
Freedom
for carriers and shippers to
contractually protect key terms
of negotiated service contracts,
including information regarding
rates ;
-
Freedom
of carriers to pursue
operational and/or capacity
agreements with other carriers
as long as they do not confer
undue market power to the
parties involved.
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