Collaboration between Bundeskartellamt and ACM leads to settlements in towage sector
Today, the German competition authority, the Bundeskartellamt, announced it has reached settlements with three undertakings and their executives, totalling approximately EUR 13 million in connection with their involvement in a cartel in the harbour towage sector. These settlements have been the result of investigations that the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) and the Bundeskartellamt launched in November 2014 into harbour towage service providers in the Netherlands and Germany. A total of four undertakings have acknowledged their involvement in cartel activities.
Said investigations had been triggered by leniency requests coming from the sector. As part of these investigations, ACM and the Bundeskartellamt took advantage of the opportunities that European competition authorities have for exchanging information and coordinating investigations. During their investigations, it turned out that the Bundeskartellamt was in the best position to take action against the cartel. With the settlements reached by the Bundeskartellamt, ACM has decided to stop its investigation into the towage sector. The Bundeskartellamt will continue its investigation.
Since late-2014, various Dutch and German media have reported on the investigations in the ports of Rotterdam and Hamburg.
The Bundeskartellamt’s press release has revealed that German and Dutch harbour towage service providers had concluded cartel agreements since 2000/2001. These were market-sharing agreements for several German ports. Towage service providers use harbour tugs, which tow larger vessels in and out of the harbour.
In recent months, ACM has repeatedly called attention to fair competition in ports. That is also why ACM has invested in efforts to increase awareness of competition rules among market participants that are active in ports, including organizing and participating in meetings about competition problems, and producing and distributing educational material. In addition, ACM has invited market participants to discuss with ACM major dilemmas that occur in ports, so that ACM is able to give guidance.
- More information about cartels in ports (in Dutch)