Regulatory Issues in the Logistics and Transport Industry
In the field of shipping, forms of cooperation between competitors are usual to a large extent. Large container shipping lines previously joined together to form so-called "liner conferences", but they now co-operate under consortia after the indemnity granted to shipping conferences under competition law was removed by the EU Commission. In the area of tramp and tank shipping companies, joint ventures and pool agreements were, and still are, common.
Large shipping companies use their market position in order to obtain special terms of business from their freight carriers and service providers. Such cooperation and procedures can give rise to considerable problems under competition law and cartel law. The EU Commission once again imposed record fines against a container shipping company against price fixing and in 2010 prohibited a pool for the deployment of non-performing container tonnage.
Back in the 1990s, we successfully represented a large shipping company in ground-breaking proceedings before the European Court of Justice concerning the imposition of a fine by the EU Commission. Since then we have regularly represented shipping and logistics companies on the drafting of cooperation agreements and purchase agreements in order to avoid the pitfalls that exist under competition law and cartel law.