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January 25, 2021
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- The EU will not launch an investigation into the abnormal state of the
containerised maritime transport market unless it is
proposed a legal action
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- CLECAT and ESC will evaluate the possibility of submitting
a formal complaint to the European Commission
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 On Saturday, delegates from clecat (European Association for
Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services) and esc
(European Shippers' Council) met online with the
representatives of the Directorate-General for Competition of the
European Commission to discuss the current situation of the
containerised maritime transport market. In the course of the
meeting of the representatives of the two associations, who represent
shippers and shippers, they reiterated, as repeatedly
in recent months, that market conditions are "without
'chaotic'.-
- Given in hand, representatives of CLECAT and ESC explained
that in recent months there has been a sudden growth
blank sailing, with the cancellation of stopovers in numerous
ports, a phenomenon that in relation to some traffic routes
increased by more than 30%. In addition
the sharp deterioration in reliability has been highlighted
schedules, with only 50% of the ships that last year
met the dates of arrival and departure from ports originally
Scheduled. In particular, however, CLECAT and ESC have
underlined the exorbitant increase in the value of noli, tariffs -
specified the two associations -- which many customers have
had to accept in order for their goods to be
rates - clecat and esc have also complained - which
determined for many small and medium-sized enterprises the consequence of
lose money and assets.
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- CLECAT and ESC pointed out that these circumstances are
supported by facts such as the lack of availability of
empty containers, the violation of contractual clauses relating to
to the noli, the application of spot noli whose value has risen
up to 16, 000 dollars per container teu transported and the application
of different nicknames, as well as the frequent repositioning
cargo despite the fact that the freight forwarders had accepted freight
very high.
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- CLECAT and ESC have announced that the commission's representatives
European Commission have replied that they are absolutely
aware of the current situation of this market, including the
recent increase in prices that - they specified the two
associations - "from their point of view it was mainly
effect of the decline and increase in demand as a result of the
covid-19 crisis». In addition, CLECAT and ESC pointed out that
the Commission's representatives 'specified that the
price increases as such are not considered to be a reason
sufficient to launch an investigation.'
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- "The Directorate-General for Competition- explained
the two associations - argued that for the European market they are
only two circumstances in which the European Commission has full
right to initiate an investigation: once a formal investigation has been restarted
revision of the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation. In this case
carriers will be asked to provide data and of course
other stakeholders will also be invited to provide
Information. Or in the context of legal action. In this
in the event of a legal initiative must be based on facts and include
sufficiently solid evidence of breaches of Articles 101 and/or
Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.'
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- CLECAT and ESC pointed out that, however, on their
insistence, the Directorate-General for Competition has acknowledged that
this situation needs an overall overview and,
therefore, at least of a new confrontation with the authorities of the
competition in the maritime sector in several parts of the world and, in particular,
in this regard, recalled that the last trialogue with the
Federal Maritime Commission and with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
China's trade took place in 2019.
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- In addition - clecat and esc again specified - the
representatives of the EU Commission announced that they would
dialogue between all market participants in order to
find a common approach to all current
market problems and to identify an action plan for a
overall solution.
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- In the light of the replies of the representatives of DG
Competition, CLECAT and esc have announced that they will evaluate
together if it is possible to lodge a formal complaint with
the European Commission.
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- For its part, the ESC highlighted the difficulty of
make a detailed complaint due to the fact that, if from a
on the side the few major maritime carriers in the world can
easily provide data to be considered as a primary source and
relevant information, on the other hand, for shippers it is
very difficult to process information on the basis of a large amount of
data from thousands of sources.
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- As if to give companies one last chance
containerised maritime vessels before possible recourse to the
lawyers, remembering that these companies have a duty to assume
specific responsibilities in exchange for exempting them
european competition rules, the ESC has
stated the need for shipping companies and shipping companies to
representative bodies act immediately in order to
bring the current situation back to normal in the most
short time possible and to ensure full
collaboration to identify ways and means to prevent
future such situations will be repeated.
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