Shippers and port industries are urging the European Commission to repeal legislation that exempts liner shipping consortia from antitrust rules.
The Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (BER), which is up for review in April 2020, allows container lines with a combined market share of less than 30% to cooperate or provide joint services.
But 10 port and transport associations have put their names to a document arguing that the BER is “obsolete” and provides liner shipping with “a generous exemption from normal competition rules”.
The regulation should be repealed “unless a revised regulatory framework clarifying the current BER is adopted”, they argue.
The document, which is backed by the European Shippers' Council, puts the transport lobby on collision course with the World Shipping Council (WSC), the US-based liner shipping lobby that has argued against any repeal.
The WSC was heavily critical of an OECD-affiliated International Transport Forum report published last November.
That document had argued for a repeal “in line with the global long-term trend to dismantle sector-specific exemptions from competition law and OECD regulatory principles”.
The 10 trade associations argue that market developments in liner shipping over the past five years “justify an in-depth review of the regulatory framework as this has not been done since 2009”.
Shippers succeeded in obtaining an abolition of liner conferences to and from Europe in October 2008.
But they were unable to prevent the European Union from renewing the block exemption last time it came under review in 2014.
