Changes in Block Exemption Applied to Maritime Transport and its Implication

This study reviews maritime transport policy regarding liner conference and the changes in the liner market over the decades. Liner shipping industry has long been protected from competition by block exemption. To prevent excessive competition in punctual operation and its inelastic market structure, liner shipping companies formed conferences that are protected to fix the prices under the law. In the US, deregulation in transport sector began from 80's and continuing with OSRA 1998, conferences were dissolving. On the other hand, the EU with close conference system, Regulation 4056/86 contained block exemption remained in force for unlimited time without review clause. However, in Oct 2008, the EU has announced its removal, and conferences were no longer permitted to fix the price nor exchange information. Although OSRA 1998 has already broken up conferences by allowing individual service contracts, but the repeal of the immunity for price fixing will alter significantly the rule on cooperation in the industry since it is a unilateral move by the EU, especially in transatlantic lane. There are rapid changes in shipping market getting much more complicated, and with removal of 4056/86 allowing the market to be more competitive, opening up the industry with far more diverse strategic options. Hence this paper reviews on liner shipping industry and its changes of policies over the years from protected market to open competition market of today.