Maritime transport was one of the very last sectors of economic activity to be subject to a tailored and tolerant exemption regime in terms of the application of rules designed to prevent and punish anti-competitive activity. The effects of this longstanding forbearance can be clearly seen in the way that the sector is currently structured. Pools, conferences, ship-sharing arrangements and other forms of inter-competitor cooperation are defining characteristics of the present-day shipping world.
Arrangements such as these, when found to exist in other sectors of the economy, would stand a fair chance of being investigated for leading to hardcore cartel-like behaviour, with the participants frequently censured – and often fined substantial sums – as a result. This is true particularly in the case of price-fixing agreements, which, although until recently were permitted in significant segments of the shipping market, are pursued relentlessly in all other areas of commercial activity.
