Shippers call for end to EU block exemption for consortia

GSF said that the EU’s Block Exemption Regulation on Maritime Consortia (BER) should be terminated and allowed to expire on 25 April 2015 in line with European Commission’s general policy of repealing such block exemptions.

“As it is now well established what the acceptable parameters of consortia agreements should be, there is no longer any obvious need for a BER ‘safe harbour’ as self-assessment is quite sufficient for standard consortia agreements,” said Chris Welch, secretary general of the GSF. He added the GSF believed the planned P3 alliance showed carriers do not need the block exemption to plan their cooperation.

“Consortia agreements above a 30% market share threshold fall outside the consortia exemption and are subject to self-assessment, in any event,” he said.

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