ESC MAY TAKE EC TO COURT OVER TACA’S TREATMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY

ESC MAY TAKE EC TO COURT OVER TACA’S TREATMENT OF CONFIDENTIALITY    The European Shippers Council may take the European Commission to court if it allows a revised cooperative agreement between carrier members of the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement.
   “We have threatened to take the European Commission to court if the revised Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement is approved,” Ferdinand Kranenburg, secretary of the Dutch Shippers’ Council, told the CI Shipping Forecast Conference in London.
   The European Shippers Council has written to the Brussels-based regulator to express concerns over the possibility that ocean carriers could exchange confidential information about their dealings with shippers. Following the adoption of the U.S. Ocean Shipping Reform Act, the TACA agreement has been revised to allow confidential private contracts between one conference carrier and one shipper.
   However, Kranenburg alleged that “there still is a potential danger in allowing shipping lines to exchange confidential information.”
   “Officially, it’s not allowed, but will that happen in reality?” he asked.
   Kranenburg also called for a new dialogue between shippers’ organizations and carriers, following the recent clarifications by European courts of pending legal cases concerning conferences.
   “Now the sky is clearing up, hopefully,” he said. “Now, it’s a must that parties sit down and talk to each other about important subjects.”
   Kranenburg said such topics to be discussed include the transparency of costs and surcharges, the impact of heightened security rules, and the report on liner shipping competition by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
   The discussions should exclude commercial aspects, he said.