Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Commission confirms unannounced inspections in the container liner shipping sector

Here. From the montrealgazette.com



"The commission’s probe covers the period from 2008, when liner shipping conferences were banned, to the present, Maersk’s spokesman Michael Storgaard said.
Liner shipping was earlier organized in groups called “liner conferences,” which met to discuss market conditions, freight rates and other common concerns under a block exemption from European competition rules.
But the European Union decided in 2006 to ban the practice as against competition rules and the ban took effect in 2008.
Maersk’s main European competitors in liner shipping are privately held Switzerland-based Mediterranean Shipping Company, privately owned French group CMA CGM and German company Hapag-Lloyd, which is half-owned by TUI AG."