The European Shippers' Council says the recent use of bunker surcharges amounts to "price signaling" by the major container lines.
As such, it violates terms of the agreements the liners made to the European Commission.
The ESC made its views known in a letter to Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's anti-competition chief.
It said the bunker surcharges were implemented despite oil prices being on the rise generally, and not due to an unexpected events. Further, the ECS noted that a discount was not applied to freight when oil prices hovered around $40 per barrel.
"Under the present circumstances, the use of such an instrument is unjustified," the ECS said. "The application of any emergency surcharge should be reserved for events that cannot be foreseen (such as a crisis influencing the availability of oil)."
So far, Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM and the ONE alliance of Japan's boxship companies have all implemented bunker surcharges.
The ESC says the surcharges should only be used if they are listed as a specific clause in a freight contract.
The spate of surcharges all coming in the last four weeks amounts to "price signaling, and therefore is in contradiction with the spirit of the (general rate increase) commitment" the carriers entered two years ago, the ESC said.
The group asked that "the European Commission ... act accordingly if any principles of fair competition are broken."
