ESC LAWYER URGES EC TO REFUSE IMMUNITY FOR ATLANTIC PACT

   Mark Clough, the lawyer representing the European Shippers’ Council, has urged the European Commission to refuse to grant antitrust immunity to the new North Atlantic Agreement.

   The agreement, expected to replace the struggling Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement, would allow its 19 transatlantic shipping line members to have a conference tariff, discuss common issues such as capacity and adopt individual or joint confidential service contracts.

   "The North Atlantic Agreement clearly falls outside the ‘regulation of capacity’ block exemption" of current EC antitrust regulations, the lawyer told the Containerization International conference in London. "The obvious purpose of the exchange of information is to increase prices at the quarterly tariff review (of the group) in the light of the capacity utilization figures relating to 80 percent of the market," he added.

   The North Atlantic Agreement also does not qualify for exemption under EC conference regulations, because the agreement’s proposed confidential contracts would not meet the regulation’s test of conferences having "common or uniform rates," the lawyer argued.