Brussels, 14/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - Following a long investigation, the European Commission has finally adopted a decision granting exemption from the EU competition rules to the Trans-Atlantic Conference Agreement (TACA), a grouping of shipping companies which provide regular container transport for freight between ports in northern Europe and the United States. The agreement that has now been cleared is the direct successor of the TACA agreement ruled illegal by the Commission in a decision of 1998 which included fines of a total amount of €273 million. The substantial increase in the extent and intensity of competition in this market has been a crucial factor in the Commission's decision to grant exemption to the Revised TACA. An explosive growth in the number of confidential individual contracts between shipping lines and shippers has contributed to an erosion of the power of the conference. That power has also been reduced by a decline in the market share of the TACA lines from approximately 60% at the time of the TACA Decision to less than 50% today. TACA members also had to introduce modifications to the initial draft to get the Commission's green light. The parties have agreed to place strict limits on the nature and amount of commercially sensitive information that can be exchanged between members of the conference. They have also agreed to submit reports of contract activity. Finally, the members of TACA have undertaken not to increase prices in conjunction with any temporary withdrawal of vessel capacity and to provide the Commission with reports allowing the latter to check that the withdrawal constitutes a strictly proportionate response to a temporary decrease in demand from transport users. Commissioner Mario Monti was pleased , "to close the final chapter in this long-running saga" and declared that they had to consider "carefully whether the generous EU block exemption that the liner shipping sector has enjoyed since 1987 is still justified today."