20 January 2023

UK COMPETITION AUTHORITY LAUNCHES CONSULTATION ON CBER

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched on 19 January a public consultation on its proposed recommendation to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy regarding the retained Liner Shipping Consortia Block Exemption Regulation.

The purpose of the consultation is to seek views on whether the UK government should keep a similar block exemption regime for the liner shipping industry, as the retained CBER originating from EU law will expire on 24 April 2024. To this end, the CMA is proposing to recommend that the Secretary of State replace the retained CBER with a Liner Shipping Consortia Block Exemption Order (CBEO), which would be broadly similar to the current regime.

CLECAT already participated in exchanges with the CMA during the pre-consultation phase, sharing our concerns if a CBER-like regime was maintained in the UK. We maintain that freight forwarders and many other users of container shipping services, are of the view that the benefits of the exemptions from general competition law enjoyed by the shipping lines are not being shared fairly between the lines and the rest of the economy. CLECAT therefore continues to call for an end to the CBER, which we consider to be an outdated measure that provides too much interpretative scope for carriers, and which protracts urgently needed enforcement actions. We encourage the development of specific guidelines for this sector to ensure that the competition law framework for vessel sharing agreements is transparent, enforceable, and open to scrutiny at times of market stress.

The consultation is open until 23 February. Responses should be sent by email by 5:00 p.m. (GMT) to: cberreview@cma.gov.uk.

Source: UK Government