Press Release: Competition: Commission welcomes Council agreement to end exemption for liner shipping conferences

The European Commission has welcomed the unanimous adoption, at the 25 September 2006 Competitiveness Council, of the Commission’s proposal to repeal the exemption from the EC Treaty’s ban on restrictive business practices (Article 81) for liner conferences on routes to and from the EU. The current block exemption, established by Council Regulation 4056/86 allows carriers to fix prices and regulate capacity jointly. The repeal will enter into effect in October 2008. To ensure that the new regime fosters competitive markets, the Commission will issue Guidelines on the application of the competition rules to maritime transport before the end of the transitional period. The Council also empowered the Commission to apply EC Treaty competition rules to cabotage and tramp shipping, by extending the scope of the competition implementing rules (Regulation 1/2003).

European Commission: DG Communication: MEMO/06/344 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/06/344&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr

---