N0 Longer at loggerheads the European Shippers' Council (ESC) and European Liner Affairs Association (ELAA) are presenting a united front in voicing support for the final Guidelines published and adopted by the European Commission.
The Guidelines are intended to give the liner shipping industry direction on the application of European Union competition rules following the repeal of Regulation 4056/86 and the effective ban on liner conferences in Europe after October 17.
The ELAA said the Guidelines are in-line with the ELAA's plans to establish a trade association for the liner shipping industry.
ELAA executive director Chris Bourne said in a statement: "There are no surprises in the document. The Guidelines will allow the shipping lines to proceed with their plans, which are now well-advanced, to establish a trade association for the liner industry in Europe."
This comes after members of the ELAA, who provide over 85 per cent of the world's maritime container carrying capacity, recently announced their intent to convert the role of the ELAA from Brussels lobbyist to the industry's trade association in Europe. The release said "the Guidelines issued today allow for this planned conversion to continue and be completed by October".
As far as members of the ESC are concerned, they drew attention to the fact that the Guidelines assist providers of liner shipping services in assessing when information exchanges breach the competition rules. This is of particular concern as the liner shipping industry is seeking to develop information exchanges which it could use in place of the conferences, to help it make decisions about capacity deployment and investment.
An ESC statement noted that there are numerous references throughout the document that urge caution among carriers over any activities that could be construed as reducing or removing "the degree of uncertainty as to the operation of the market in question with the result that competition between undertakings is restricted."
It also highlighted that the Guideline's warnings about sharing information among carriers could again be construed as reducing the opportunity for individual carriers to make autonomous policy over their business strategy and activities.
ESC secretary general Nicolette van der Jagt said: "If an exchange of information is assessed to reduce competition by reducing autonomous policy decisions by undertakings, by revealing actions or intentions of competitors, this is not allowed."
She continued: "This is going to be a challenge for industry. Carriers, who are part of the European Liner Affairs Association's data exchange system and intend to have discussions on the data in their future trade association, have to carefully assess their own behaviour. Some of this makes it clear that carriers will be walking on very thin legal ice."
The ESC added that it will closely monitor exchanges of information developed by the liner shipping sector for compliance with the EU competition law and their impact on liner trades elsewhere.
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