Lloyd's Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
ANTI-TRUST IMPLICATIONS OF LINER CONFERENCES: ALTERNATIVES TO THE REGULATION OF LINER TRADES WITH EMPHASIS ON THE EUROPEAN APPROACH
Anne C. B. McIntosh
J. M. Didier & Associates, Brussels*
The purpose of this paper is two-fold : firstly, to illustrate the alternative means of regulating liner trades as exemplified in a number of different systems and thereafter to outline in particular the implications for liner conferences of the application of the EEC Competition Rules to sea transport. The first part of the study serves as a natural basis of comparison for an explanation of the Community approach.
The paper commences with a general discussion of liner conferences as an introduction to the subject.
I. Definition of Liner Conferences
Liner conferences (“conférences maritimes”) are associations of ocean carriers, operating in the same trade, which regulate rates, charges and conditions governing the transportation by members of goods by water. Member lines of a conference provide a “liner” service for the carriage of general cargo as opposed to bulk cargo and offer a fixed sailing pattern on a publicised schedule.
The essential qualification of a liner service is the rendering of a regular service. A liner operates by giving a service on a particular trade route with the regularity and the frequency which the shippers need for carrying on their normal business and by providing the ships of specialised design, where these are required.
A liner has to provide a service to shippers who ship little and often, or who ship commodities that will not stow in such a manner as to fill a ship by themselves. From this description, it is clear that a rather special kind of service is required of liner operators, the central feature of which is that sailings should be on advertised dates and at fixed intervals.
The conference system grew up in response to severe competition during periods of over-capacity. It has developed some form of structure in so far as conferences normally establish a permanent body with a chairman or secretary. In addition,
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