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The
liner industry, which has had
several brushes with Brussels on
anti-trust laws and issues relating
to dominant power against shippers,
received, for a change, good news
last week with the landmark
provisional approval of the
Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement
by the European Commission.
The
revised version of Taca, originally
submitted to Brussels early in 1999
for exemption from anti-trust laws
and subsequently modified, now
satisfies competition regulators,
according to the commission in a
notice to the Official Journal.
The
draft decision, if formally adopted,
should provide the long-awaited
industry blueprint promised by
Brussels three years ago. Interested
parties have 30 days in which to
comment before Brussels adopts a
formal decision.
The
recent decision is expected to
provide clear guidelines on several
key issues including capacity
management and the exchange of
information between members of a
conference.
Following
a number of changes and undertakings
of Taca lines concerning the
collection and aggregation of
individual contract details, the
commission said it was
“satisfied” that these “are
sufficient to address the concerns
which led it to raise serious
doubts” in a letter sent to Taca
in August, 1999.
On
capacity management the commission
states that co-ordinated space
withdrawal is permissible only to
cope with short-term fluctuations in
demand. Any such programme must not
increase freight rates or create an
artificial peak season.
The
commission also notes that the
remaining members of Taca — Maersk
Sealand, P&O Nedlloyd, Hapag-Lloyd,
NYK Line, Orient Overseas Container
Line, Atlantic Container Line and
Mediterranean Shipping Co — are
subject to considerable internal and
external competition.
Taca
lines now have a market share of
about 50 per cent compared with 60
per cent in 1995.
Subject
to compliance with agreed
undertakings, “there is no risk
that the notified agreement will
lead to the elimination of effective
competition on the relevant
market”, the notice states.
The
Taca decision should provide a legal
framework for the whole industry and
not just the Atlantic trades.
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