European shippers demand changes to regulation

Complaining about service quality, the shipper group says the current regulation that allows vessel sharing “does not fulfill its own objective” and should be amended or repealed.

   The European Shippers Council (ESC), which says it represents the interests of more than 75,000 cargo owners in the European Union, both large multinational as well as small and medium companies, is calling for the repeal of the law that allows container shipping companies to share space on vessels unless the current law is revised.
   The European Commission is currently reviewing whether to renew the current law, called the consortia block exemption regulation (BER) when it expires in April 2020.
   The shippers group says the current law “has not contributed to better services in maritime transport for shippers as it aimed to” and says it is releasing a position paper outlining shippers’ main arguments.
   “The objective of the Consortia BER, since its first adoption in 1995, has been, while allowing shipping lines to form consortia, to bring shared benefits to consortia’s clients — shippers, the owners of cargo — in terms of better services and higher productivity.
   “However, with the schedule unreliability, blank sailings, and a lack of transparency, shippers have not been experiencing any improvement in the service quality. No consortium is fully compliant with the BER criteria, exceeding the allowed market threshold, creating high concentration on main trade lanes, and bringing service uniformity.”
   “Moreover, the present BER introduced an unbalanced legal treatment of consortia partners on the one hand and consortia customers, as well as the other stakeholders, on the other. The regulation in its current form accepts the lack of transparency in consortia compliance, but shippers have no legal footing to defend their interests vis-à-vis consortia.”
   “Therefore, shippers would like to see a new BER that would clearly define a market share, make consortia partners accountable, and provide a transparent mechanism of compliance procedures. The present regulation in its current form does not respond to the new market situation, does not fulfill its own objective, and should be amended.” If it is not amended, ESC says the regulation should be repealed.