CARRIERS APPEAL $8-MILLION EC FINES
Fourteen major shipping lines have appealed in court for the annulment of fines imposed by the European Commission for allegedly breaking European competition laws.
The appeal concerns the carriers’ Far East Trade Tariff Charges and Surcharges Agreement which covered the levels of ancillary charges and surcharges in the Asia/Europe trade. In May, the EC imposed fines on the carriers of 7 million euro ($8 million) because of what it described as their “illegal price agreement on the Europe/Far East trade.”
Fourteen of the 15 shipping lines that participated in the now-defunct Far East Trade Tariff Charges and Surcharges agreement have appealed the fines decision before a European court in Luxembourg. They are: Cho Yang, CMA CGM, Evergreen, Hanjin Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, “K” Line, Malaysia International Shipping Corp., Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Neptune Orient Lines, NYK, Orient Overseas Container Line, P&O Nedlloyd, Senator Lines and Yangming.
The appeal is the latest move in a series of disputes between shipping lines and the Brussels regulatory agency about the application of competition laws.
Maersk Sealand did not join the other carriers in their legal appeal. A spokesman for Maersk Sealand said that his company did not want to get involved in another long legal battle with the EC. Maersk Sealand/A.P. Moller was fined 836,000 euro (about $930,000) in May.
Under the Far East Trade Tariff Charges and Surcharges Agreement, which operated from 1991 and disbanded in 1994, the conference and non-conference carriers agreed not to charge customers less than certain published surcharge levels, the EC said.
The 14 carriers that appealed the fines asked the court to annul the EC decision and to “annul or reduce” the related fines.
In a joint statement, the carriers said that the EC “was wrong to conclude that the Far East Trade Tariff Charges and Surcharges Agreement parties made an agreement in 1992 not to discount their charges and surcharges.” They added that the fines were, in any case, “excessive and inappropriate.”
The appeal of the fines follows a similar appeal of the EC fines of $300 million imposed on Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement carriers in 1998. Cho Yang, Hanjin Shipping, Hapag-Lloyd, Maersk Sealand, Neptune Orient Lines, NYK, Orient Overseas Container Line, P&O Nedlloyd, Senator Lines and Yangming are awaiting a court decision on their December 1998 legal appeal of the EC fines on the TACA agreement.