Competition: Commission paves way for more competition in ship classification market by making IACS’s commitments legally binding
- Sweden
- 10/28/2009
- Roschier, Attorneys Ltd. - Sweden
The Commission adopted a decision that renders legally binding commitments by the International Association of Classification Societies (“IACS”) to address the Commission’s concerns that IACS may have violated Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement.
The Commission was concerned that the IACS may have restricted competition, in particular, by preventing classification societies which are not already members of IACS from joining the IACS, from participating in the IACS’s technical working groups and from accessing the group’s technical background documents. In order to address the Commission’s concerns, the IACS offered commitments to, inter alia, establish objective and transparent membership criteria, to give classification societies which are not IACS members the possibility to participate in IACS working groups and to give them full access to the IACS’s technical resolutions and related background documents.
The Commission states that the market test of the commitments this past summer confirmed that the proposed commitments are appropriate and proportionate to remedy its concerns. Therefore, the Commission adopted a decision under Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003 making the commitments legally binding on IACS. Source: Commission Press Release 14/10/2009
