Eu Maritime Competition Law

The first part of the dissertation aims to give a brief introduction to Council Regulation (EEC) No 4056/86. As one significant rule guiding competition in the area of EU international shipping, Regulation 4056/86 laid down detailed rules for the application of Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) to maritime transport. Its core is to give liner conferences block exemption. Agreements, decisions and concerted practices of all or part of the members of one or more liner conferences are hereby exempted from the prohibition in Article81 (1) of the Treaty, subject to the condition imposed by Article 4 of this Regulation, when they have as their objective the fixing of rates and conditions of carriage. The justification for the block exemption in essence assumes that conferences bring stability, ensuring transport users reliable services which cannot be achieved by less restrictive means.The second part focuses on the background of the Council's decision to repeal EEC No 4056/86, the whole repealing process and the potential impact of the repeal as well as the standpoint of both carriers and shippers. In view of the outside changing world and its own competitive policy, the Commission of European Union started consultation on application of competition rules to maritime transport in March 2003. After three and a half years, in September 2006, having regard to the legal proposal from the Commission, the Council repealed Regulation 4056/86. The Commission has concluded that a repeal of the block exemption will bring about substantial benefits to EU industry and consumers, in particular as regards transport prices, reliability of liner shipping services, competitiveness of the EU liner shipping industry. The repeal of the block exemption will therefore also contribute to the Lisbon objectives. Before the end of the two-year transitional period (September 2008), the Commission will publish Guidelines, whose purpose is to explain how competition rules apply to maritime transport services in general and to achieve a smooth transition to the liberalization of the shipping market.Currently both carriers and shippers express their views actively on the direction of the liner industry reform. The European Liner Affairs Association (ELAA) and its membership submit to the Commission's service a Proposal of Information Exchange System, to replace Regulation 4056/86. The Commission welcomes the willingness of carriers to think about a future organization of liner shipping, other than the current conference system. It has also taken note of ELAA's proposal. Some people think that the Information Exchange System may constitute a framework for a new regulatory structure for liner shipping services operating to and from the EU. However, the Information Exchange System can not be accepted in its present form, as it contains factors which are incompatible with Article 81 (1) of the Treaty and can not fulfill the conditions for an exemption under Article 81 (3).The third part of the dissertation turns from EU to China. On the basis of the analysis of EU's new shipping instruments, I try to put forward several suggestions for the improvement of China's shipping market competition rules. The successful experience of EU on review process of Regulation 4056/86 deserves our respect. Moreover, facing the reality of our country, I have also discussed the application of anti-monopoly exemption for international shipping agreements in China.