Competition Law and Shipping: The EMLO Guide to EU Competition Law in the Shipping and Port Industries

This is the first book to focus specifically on the impact of EU competition law on the shipping industry since the industry became subject to the full weight of competition law and lost immunity for liner conferences in October 2008. It contains a detailed critique of the European Commission s guidelines on the application of Article 81 of the EC Treaty to maritime transport services, dealing with such issues as the jurisdictional reach of EU law, the rules to be applied in defining the relevant product or geographical markets, the legality of information sharing agreements between competitors and the correct analysis to be applied to pooling agreements in the tramp shipping sector. However, the book is not limited to the maritime guidelines but examines a broad range of competition law issues affecting affecting all sectors of the maritime industry, including ports.

The book was conceived by the European Maritime Law Organisation, the leading European forum for the discussion of maritime competition law, and is based on the Organisation s 2008 Annual Conference. It contains contributions from a number of leading maritime competition law experts and economists on all the main recent developments in the law that are likely to be of interest to owners, charterers, shippers, brokers, port operators and users etc. It contains fascinating discussions on the problems associated with information sharing, cooperation in the form of pools, consortia and alliances, the limits on state aid and public funding of public services, all of which are likely to appeal to a much wider competition law audience. It is required reading for anyone connected with the shipping or ports industries, but specialist competition lawyers and economists in other sectors will find much in the high quality of the contributions that can be applied in their own areas.