NMa: No Fine for Infringement by Branch Associations for Maritime Container Transportation
The Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa), after further questioning, has decided not to impose fines on three branch associations, whose members are active in the area of road transportation of maritime containers.
In 2003 following an investigation NMa drew up a report on the three branch associations, Transport en Logistiek Nederland (TLN), Alliantie Zeecontainervervoerders (AZ) and Vereniging van Zeecontainervervoerders (VZV), which were suspected issuing of recommended prices to their members. The alleged price recommendations related to the passing on of the annual general development in costs, fluctuations in fuel prices and the cost of the proposed German road toll. The issuing of recommended prices by branch associations is prohibited because they are seen as a form of price fixing between the members which restrict competition between them.
The branch associations committed an offence by recommending that their members pass fluctuations in the fuel price and the German road toll on to their customers. NMa has not imposed a fine for this infringement because the Dutch government repeatedly and clearly expressed the desirability of passing on the increase in fuel prices and the road toll in full. The government left the realisation of this to the companies themselves the associations involved in all openness then recommended that their members do so and made model clauses and tables available to their members for this. After it appeared that NMa had objections to this, the associations immediately ceased issuing these recommendations. Due to the specific circumstances of this case, NMa has decided not to impose fines for these infringements.
NMa concludes that competition rules with regard to the issuing of annual information on the development of costs were not infringed. Giving such information to members is a legitimate task of a branch association, according to NMa. However, branch associations must draw their members' attention to the fact that they must determine their commercial behaviour, including their prices, independently of each other and, by doing so, must take their individual cost structure as the point of departure. The information provided related to objective and generally available data which did not contain interpretations made by the branch associations themselves. For this reason, NMa does not regard this information as a prohibited price recommendation which restricts competition.