Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
EC COMPETITION RULES AND MARITIME TRANSPORT
French-West African Shipowners’ Committees
Introduction
In April 1992 the EC Commission issued a Decision1 imposing fines on several shipping companies for infringement of both Art. 85(1) and Art. 86 (the anticompetition provisions) of the Treaty of Rome. The investigation was carried out and the fines imposed under Council Regulation 4056/86,2 which was adopted in 1986 to introduce detailed rules for the application of the EC competition rules to the maritime transport sector.
The Decision is the first one adopted by the Commission condemning practices in the maritime transport sector. It is a lengthy document providing a detailed factual and legal analysis of the market and the applicable laws. The Decision is interesting not only as an indicator of the Commission’s approach to anti-competitive practices in this sector, but also as an illustration of the various policies which have to be taken into account when the competition rules are applied to sectors, such as shipping, where the Community industry is not particularly strong and where some of the parties involved in the infringement are not Community entities.
1. Commission Decision IV 32.45: French-West African Shipowners’ Committees of 1 April 1992: O.J. 1992 L134/1.
2. O.J. 1986 L378/4.
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