The EU Commission has announcedthat it has closedits formal investigation into 14 container shipping companies, including Maersk Line, relating to Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003, without finding an infringement of EU competition law.
The Commissionopenedtheinvestigation on 21 November 2013, regarding theuse of General Rate Increase (GRI) announcements in the liner shipping sector. GRI announcements are used to inform customers of intended price increases.
“We are very pleased that the EU Commission has closed the case without findingan infringement ofEU competition law,' noted Camilla Jain Holtse, chief legal counsel on competition compliance at Maersk Line. 'Weandthe other shipping companies have throughout declared that we have not engaged in any practices thatcontravene EU competition law.'
According to Maersk Line, it and the other parties have offered to, and will adopt, commitments by which they will change the way they make price announcements to customers. Notably, there will be changes to the current industry practice of announcing GRIs.
Maersk Line will continue to announce price increases 30 days in advance of implementation to its customers by the usual communication channels. However, instead of solely announcing the amount of the increase, price announcements will include the total price resulting from the increase andfurther elements to increase transparency for customers.
“We are committed to comply with all applicable laws and regulations. We train and support our employees, we monitor our compliance, and we work with authorities and engage in regulatory matters. In short, we work hard to comply, also with competition laws as this case shows,” Holtse added.
