EC TO PROBE CONFIDENTIALITY TERMS OF REVISED TACA
The European Commission has announced a detailed probe into the way
carriers of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement exchange contract information.
In January, the carriers of TACA had asked the EC to approve the
so-called TACA-2. The agreement ended the previous practise of joint inland rate-making in
Europe by the group, introduced a requirement that member carriers do not price inland
services below cost when they offer inland transport as part of a multimodal transport
operation, and allowed confidential individual contracts.
But while the Brussels watchdog said that it can approve the inland
part of TACA-2, it said that it has "serious doubts" about the exchange of
information concerning the maritime aspects of the agreement.
"This means that the Commission has decided to continue its
investigation into the maritime aspects of the arrangements," a spokesman said. The
EC intends to make further investigations into "whether the parties’ arrangements for
the exchange of information could harm competition between the parties when they negotiate
and agree individual service contracts with shippers."
In a related development, the EC hailed the termination of TACA’s
joint European inland pricing as a success. In addition to TACA, other conferences serving
Europe have also abandoned their inland tariff, the EC said.