EP QUESTIONS EXTREMELY HIGH CONTAINER PRICES
MEPs Tom Berendsen and Annie Schreijer-Pierik (EPP, the Netherlands) issued a new set of questions to the Commission on the extremely high container prices and the impact on consumer prices. The MEPs note that the sharply rising container prices have had a knock-on effect on consumer prices, referring to recent Eurostat figures in the Eurozone. All the while, the container ship industry raked in record profits of over EUR 150 billion in 2021.
The Commission is asked how it intends to gain insight into the agreements made by container shipping companies as a result of the exemptions from normal competition protection provided by the Consortia Block Exemption Regulation (CBER). The Commission is also asked for its view on the exemptions from normal competition protection afforded to container shipping companies by the CBER in the light of current inflation rates and the profit margins of these companies.