Towards the end of the day on Monday 10 April, the European Commission announced a merger in the regular container shipping sector. Maersk Line A/S of Denmark received conditional approval to acquire Hamburg Südamerikanische Dampfschifffahrts-Gesellschaft KH (HSDG) of Germany.
Like many shipping companies, Maersk Line and HSDG offer their services on trade routes under cooperation agreements concluded with other shipping companies. These consortia are based on vessel-sharing agreements whereby the members together set capacity, timetables and the list of ports of call, all of which are important competition parameters.
HSDG must withdraw from five consortia operating trade routes between North Europe and Central America and the Caribbean, North Europe and the west coast of South America, North Europe and the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the west coast of South America and the Mediterranean and the east coast of South America. On these routes, the Commission explains, the merged entity would not face sufficient competitive pressure.
The transaction would have created new links between Maersk Line and the five consortia of which HSDG is a member. These links could have allowed the merged entity to bring influence to bear over the key competitive parameters such as capacity, on the vast majority of these markets, at the expense of its clients and, ultimately, consumers.
HSDG will continue to participate in the five consortia during the notice period, in order to ensure an orderly exit. However, a monitoring trustee will ensure that no anti-competitive information is shared between these five consortia and the merged entity during the notice period. (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)