EC TO PROBE CONFIDENTIALITY TERMS OF REVISED TACA

    The European Commission has announced a detailed probe into the way carriers of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement exchange contract information.

    In January, the carriers of TACA had asked the EC to approve the so-called TACA-2. The agreement ended the previous practise of joint inland rate-making in Europe by the group, introduced a requirement that member carriers do not price inland services below cost when they offer inland transport as part of a multimodal transport operation, and allowed confidential individual contracts.

    But while the Brussels watchdog said that it can approve the inland part of TACA-2, it said that it has "serious doubts" about the exchange of information concerning the maritime aspects of the agreement.

    "This means that the Commission has decided to continue its investigation into the maritime aspects of the arrangements," a spokesman said. The EC intends to make further investigations into "whether the parties’ arrangements for the exchange of information could harm competition between the parties when they negotiate and agree individual service contracts with shippers."

    In a related development, the EC hailed the termination of TACA’s joint European inland pricing as a success. In addition to TACA, other conferences serving Europe have also abandoned their inland tariff, the EC said.