{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2000-823/introduction",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2000-823/introduction.json",
  "legislation": "eur/2000/823",
  "legislation_title": "Commission Regulation (EC) No 823/2000 of 19 April 2000 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to certain categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices between liner shipping companies (consortia) (Text with EEA relevance)",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/eu-regulation-2000-823",
  "path": "introduction",
  "kind": "introduction",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Introductory text",
  "text": "Commission Regulation (EC) No 823/2000\nof 19 April 2000\non the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to certain categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices between liner shipping companies (consortia)\n(Text with EEA relevance)\nTHE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,\nHaving regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,\nHaving regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 479/92 of 25 February 1992 on the application of Article 85(3) of the Treaty to certain categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices between liner shipping companies (consortia), as amended by the Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden, and in particular Article 1 thereof,\nHaving published a draft of this Regulation,\nHaving consulted the Advisory Committee on Restrictive Practices and Dominant Positions in Maritime Transport,\nWhereas:\n(1)\nRegulation (EEC) No 479/92 empowers the Commission to apply Article 81(3) of the Treaty to certain categories of agreements, decisions and concerted practices between shipping companies (consortia) relating to the joint operation of liner transport services, which, through the cooperation they bring about between the shipping companies that are parties thereto, are liable to restrict competition within the common market and to affect trade between Member States and may therefore be caught by the prohibition contained in Article 81(1) of the Treaty.\n(2)\nThe Commission has made use of this power by adopting Commission Regulation (EC) No 870/95. In the light of experience thus acquired so far, it is possible to define a category of consortia which are capable of falling within the scope Article 81(1) but which can normally be regarded as satisfying the conditions laid down in Article 81(3).\n(3)\nThe Commission has taken due account of the special features of maritime transport. Those features will also constitute a material factor in any Commission assessment of consortia not covered by this block exemption.\n(4)\nConsortia, as defined in this Regulation, generally help to improve the productivity and quality of available liner shipping services by reason of the rationalisation they bring to the activities of member companies and through the economies of scale they allow in the operation of vessels and utilisation of port facilities. They also help to promote technical and economic progress by facilitating and encouraging greater utilisation of containers and more efficient use of vessel capacity.\n(5)\nUsers of the shipping services provided by consortia generally obtain a fair share of the benefits resulting from the improvements in productivity and service quality which they bring about. Those benefits may also take the form of an improvement in the frequency of railings and port calls, or an improvement in scheduling as well as better quality and personalised services through the use of more modern vessels and other equipment, including port facilities. Users can benefit effectively from consortia only if there is sufficient competition in the trades in which the consortia operate.\n(6)\nThose agreements should therefore enjoy a block exemption, provided that they do not give the companies concerned the possibility of eliminating competition in a substantial part of the trades in question. In order to take account of the constant fluctuations in the maritime transport market and the frequent changes made by the parties to the terms of consortium agreements or to the activities covered by the agreements, one of the objects of this Regulation is to clarify the conditions to be met by consortia in order to benefit from the block exemption it grants.\n(7)\nFor the purpose of establishing and running a joint service, an essential feature inherent in consortia is the ability to make capacity adjustments. The non-utilisation of a certain percentage of vessel capacity within a consortium is not an essential feature of consortia.\n(8)\nThe block exemption granted by this Regulation should cover both consortia operating within a liner conference and consortia operating outside such conferences, except that it does not cover the joint fixing of freight rates.\n(9)\nRate-fixing activities come under Council Regulation (EEC) No 4056/86 of 22 December 1986 laying down detailed rules for the application of Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty to maritime transport, as amended by the Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden. Consortium members that wish to fix rates jointly and do not satisfy the criteria of Regulation (EFC) No 4056/86 must apply for individual exemption.\n(10)\nThe first of the conditions attaching to the block exemption should be that a fair share of the benefits resulting from the improved efficiency, as well as the other benefits offered by consortia, are passed on to transport users.\n(11)\nThis requirement of Article 81(3) should be regarded as being met when a consortium is in one or more of the three situations described below:\nthere is effective price competition between the members of the conference within which the consortium operates as a result of independent rate action,\nthere exists within the conference within which the consortium operates a sufficient degree of effective competition in terms of services provided between consortium members and other conference members that are not members of the consortium, as a result ofthe fact that the conference agreement expressly allows consortia to offer their own service arrangements, e.g. the provision by the consortium. alone of a ‘just-in-time delivery’ service or an advanced ‘electronic data interchange’ (EDI) service allowing users to be kept informed at all times of the whereabouts of their goods, or a significant increase in the frequency of sailings and calls in the service offered by a consortium compared with that offered by the conference,\nconsortium members are subject to effective, actual or potential competition from non-consortium lines, whether or not a conference operates in the trade or trades in question.\n(12)\nIn order to satisfy this same requirement of Article 81(3), provision should be made for a further condition aimed at promoting individual competition as to quality of service between consortium members as well as between consortium members and other shipping companies operating in the trade or trades.\n(13)\nIt should be a condition that consortia and their members do not, in respect of a given route, apply rates and conditions of carriage which are differentiated solely by reference to the country of origin or destination of the goods carried and thus cause within the Community deflections of trade that are harmful to certain ports, shippers, carriers or providers of services ancillary to transport, unless such rates or conditions can be economically justified.\n(14)\nThe aim of the conditions should also be to prevent consortia from imposing restrictions on competition which are not indispensable to the attainment of the objectives justifying the grant of the exemption. To this end, consortium agreements should contain a provision enabling each shipping line party to the agreement to withdraw from the consortium provided that it gives reasonable notice. However, provision should be made for a longer notice period in the case of highly integrated and/or high-investment consortia in order to take account of the higher investments undertaken to set them up and the more extensive reorganisation entailed in the event of a member's leaving. It should also be stipulated that, where a consortium operates with a joint marketing structure, each member should have the right to engage in independent marketing activities provided that it gives reasonable notice.\n(15)\nExemption must be limited to consortia which do not have the possibility of eliminating competition in a substantial part of the services in question.\n(16)\nIn order to determine for the purposes of exemption whether exemption competition exists on each market upon which the consortium operates, account should be taken not only of direct trade between the ports served by a consortium but also of any competition from other liner services sailing from ports which may be substituted for those served by the consortium and, where appropriate, of other modes of transport.\n(17)\nThe block exemption granted by this Regulation is therefore applicable only on condition that on each market upon which the consortium operates the market share held by a consortium does not exceed a given size.\n(18)\nThe market share held by a consortium within a conference should be smaller in view of the fact that the agreements is question are superimposed on an existing restrictive agreement.\n(19)\nHowever, it is appropriate to offer consortia which exceed the limits laid down in this Regulation by a given percentage but which continue to be subject to effective competition in the trades in which they operate a simplified procedure so that they may benefit from the legal certainty afforded by block exemptions. Such a procedure should also enable the Commission to carry out effective monitoring and simplify the administrative control of agreements.\n(20)\nHowever, consortia which exceed the limit should be able to obtain exemption by individual decision, provided that they satisfy the tests of Article 81(3), regard being had to the special features of maritime transport.\n(21)\nThis Regulation should apply only to agreements concluded between the members of a consortium. Therefore, the block exemption should not cover restrictive agreements concluded between, on the one hand, consortia or one or more of their members, and, on the other hand, other shipping companies. Nor should it apply to restrictive agreements between different consortia operating in the same trade or between the members of such consortia.\n(22)\nCertain obligations should also be attached to the exemption. In this respect, transport users should at all times be in a position to acquaint themselves with the conditions for the provision of the maritime transport services jointly operated by the members of the consortium. Provision should be made for real and effective consultations between the consortia and transport users on the activities covered by the agreements. This Regulation also specifies what is meant by ‘real and effective consultations’ and what main procedural stages are to be followed for such consultations. Provision should be made for such mandatory consultation, limited to the activities of consortia as such.\n(23)\nSuch consultations are likely to secure a more efficient operation of maritime transport services which takes account of users' requirements. Consequently, certain restrictive practices which could ensue from such consultations should be exempted.\n(24)\nFor the purposes of this Regulation, the concept of force majeure is that laid down by the Court of Justice of the European Communities in its established case-law.\n(25)\nProvision should be made whereby awards given at arbitration and recommendations made by conciliators and accepted by the parties are to he notified to the Commission forthwith, in order to enable it to verify that consortia are not thereby exempted from the conditions and obligations provided for in the Regulation and thus do not infringe the provisions of Articles 81 and 82.\n(26)\nIt is necessary to specify, in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation (EEC) No 479/92, the cases in which the Commission may withdraw from companies the benefit of the block exemption.\n(27)\n11 consortia benefited from the block exemption contained in Regulation (EC) No 870/95 by application of the opposition procedure in that Regulation which enabled the Commission in particular to check that they were subject to effective competition. There is no indication that circumstances have since become such that those consortia are no longer subject to effective competition. Those consortia should therefore continue to be exempted on the terms laid down in this Regulation.\n(28)\nNo applications under Article 12 of Regulation (EEC) No 4056/86 should need to be made in respect of agreements automatically exempted by this Regulation. However, when real doubts exist, companies should be permitted to request the Commission to declare whether their agreements comply with this Regulation.\n(29)\nThis Regulation is without prejudice to the application of Article 82 of the Treaty.\n(30)\nIn view of the expiry of Regulation (EC) No 870/95, it is appropriate to adopt a new Regulation renewing the block exemption,\nHAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:",
  "extent": "E+W+S+N.I.",
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f1",
      "text": "OJ L 55, 29.2.1992, p. 3."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f2",
      "text": "OJ C 379, 31.12.1999, p. 13."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f3",
      "text": "OJ L 89, 21.4.1995, p. 7."
    },
    {
      "type": "footnote",
      "label": "f4",
      "text": "OJ L 378, 31.12.1986, p. 4."
    }
  ],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2000/823/introduction",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-11-01T14:57:27.201867+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}