Container carriers have welcomed a decision by the European Commission to exempt liner shipping from antitrust legislation for another four years.
The commission published a draft regulation this week that proposes extending the European Union's Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (BER) until 25 April 2024.
The BER legislation, which was up for review in April 2020, allows lines with a combined market share of less than 30% to cooperate or provide joint services on European trades.
Shippers and port industries had sought to repeal the liner shipping exemption, arguing that the BER is obsolete and provides liner shipping with “a generous exemption from normal competition rules”.
But the World Shipping Council (WSC), a liner shipping lobby, has commended the commission for “continuing to recognise both the benefits of vessel sharing consortia and the importance of the consortia BER to the efficient operation of those operational arrangements”.
“Vessel sharing arrangements are an established and essential part of the liner shipping networks that carry the international trade of the European Union and the rest of the world,” WSC president and chief executive John Butler said.
“Consortia allow carriers to provide their customers with better services at lower cost, with improved environmental performance,” he said.
The commission has also published a consultation road map.
It has invited comments on the road map by 18 December, and on the proposed course of action set out in the draft regulation by 3 January 2020.
Following the consultation, the commission may decide to directly adopt or refine its proposal.
The liner shipping industry transports more than 33m teu of imports to, and exports from, the European Union annually, according to WSC figures.
