
CHAPTER I
Article 1 
This Regulation shall apply to consortia only in so far as they provide international liner transport services from or to one or more Community ports.
Article 2 
For the purposes of this Regulation:

1.. ‘consortium’ means an agreement between two or more vessel-operating carriers which provide international liner shipping services exclusively for the carriage of cargo, chiefly by container, relating to one or more trades, and the object of which is to bring about cooperation in the joint operation of a maritime transport service, and which improves the service that would be offered individually by each of its members in the absence of the consortium, in order to rationalise their operations by means of technical, operational and/or commercial arrangements, with the exception of price fixing;
2.. ‘liner shipping’ means the transport of goods on a regular basis on a particular route or routes between ports and in accordance with timetables and sailing dates advertised in advance and available, even on an occasional basis, to any transport user againstpayment;
3.. ‘service arrangement’ means a contractual arrangement concluded between one or more transport users and an individual member of a consortium or a consortium itself under which, in return for an undertaking to commission the transportation of a certain quantity of goods over a given period of time, a user receives an individual undertaking from the consortium member or the consortium to provide an individualised service which is of a given quality and specially tailored to its needs;
4.. ‘transport user’ means any undertaking (such as shipper, consignee, forwarder) which has entered into, or demonstrated an intention to enter into, a contractual agreement with a consortium (or one of its members) for the shipment of goods, or any association of shippers;
5.. ‘independent rate action’ means the right of a maritime conference member to offer, on a case-by-case basis and in respect of goods, freight rates which differ from those laid down in the conference tariff, provided that notice is given to the other conference members;
6.. ‘commencement of the service’ means the date on which the first vessel sails on the service or, when there has been substantial new investment, the date on which the first vessel sails under the conditions directly arising from that substantial new investment;
7.. ‘substantial new investment’ means investment which results in the building, purchase or long-term charter of vessels, which are specifically designed, required and substantial for the operation of the service and which constitutes at least half of the total investment made by the consortium members in relation to the maritime transport service offered by the consortium.
CHAPTER II
Article 3 

1. Pursuant to Article 81(3) of the Treaty and subject to the conditions and obligations laid down in this Regulation, it is hereby declared that Article 81(1) of the Treaty shall not apply to the activities listed in paragraph 2 of this Article when contained in consortium agreements as defined in Articles 1 and 2 of this Regulation.
2. The declaration of non-applicability shall apply only to the following activities:
(a) the joint operation of liner shipping transport services which comprise solely the following activities:
((i)) the coordination and/or joint fixing of sailing timetables and the determination of ports of call;
((ii)) the exchange, sale or cross-chartering of space or slots on vessels;
((iii)) the pooling of vessels and/or port installations;
((iv)) the use of one or more joint operations offices;
((v)) the provision of containers, chassis and other equipment and/or the rental, leasing or purchase contracts for such equipment;
((vi)) the use of a computerised data exchange system and/or joint documentation system;
(b) temporary capacity adjustments;
(c) the joint operation or use of port terminals and related services (such as lighterage or stevedoring serrices);
(d) the participation in one or more of the following pools: cargo, revenue or net revenue;
(e) the joint exercise of voting rights held by the consortium in the conference within which its members operate, in so far as the vote being jointly exercised concerns the consortium's activities as such;
(f) a joint marketing structure and/or the issue of a joint bill of lading;
(g) any other activity ancillary to those referred to above in points (a) to (f) which is necessary for their implementation.
3. The following clauses shall in particular be considered ancillary activities within the meaning of paragraph 2(g):
(a) an obligation on members of the consortium to use on the trade or trades in question vessels allocated to the consortium and to refrain from chartering space on vessels belonging to third parties;
(b) an obligation on members of the consortium not to assign or charter space to other vessel-operating carriers on the trade or trades in question except with the prior consent of the other members of the consortium.
Article 4 
The exemption provided for in Article 3 shall not apply to a consortium when the consortium includes arrangements concerning the non-utilisation of existing capacity whereby shipping line members of the consortium refrain from using a certain percentage of the capacity of vessels operated within the framework of the consortium.
CHAPTER III
Article 5 
The exemption provided for in Article 3 shall apply only if one or more of the conditions set out below are met:

((a)) there is effective price competition between the members of the conference within which the consortium operates, due to the fact that the members are expressly authorised by the conference agreement, whether by virtue of a statutory obligation or otherwise, to apply independent rate action to any freight rate provided for in the conference tariff and/or to enter into individual confidential contracts; or
((b)) there exists within the conference within which the consortium operates a sufficient degree of effective competition between the conference members in terms of the services provided, due to the fact that the conference agreement expressly allows the consortium to offer its own service arrangements, irrespective of form, concerning the frequency and quality of transport services provided as well as freedom at all times to adapt the services it offers in response to specifc requests from transport users; or
((c)) whether or not a conference operates in the trade or trades in question, the consortium members are subject to effective competition, actual or potential, from shipping lines which are not members of that consortium.
Article 6 

1. In order to qualify for the exemption provided for in Article 3, a consortium must possess on each market upon which it operates a market share of under 30 % calculated by reference to the volume of goods carried (freight tonnes or 20-foot equivalent units) when it operates within a conference, and under 35 % when it operates outside a conference.
2. The exemption provided for in Article 3 shall continue to apply if the market share referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article is exceeded during any period of two consecutive calendar years by not more than one tenth.
3. Where one of the limits specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 is exceeded, the exemption provided for in Article 3 shall continue to apply for a period of six months following the end of the calendar year during which it was exceeded. This period shall be extended to 12 months if the excess is due to the withdrawal from the market of a carrier which is not a member of the consortium.
Article 7 
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Article 8 
Eligibility for the exemptions provided for in Articles 3 and 10 shall be subject to the following conditions:

((a)) the consortium must allow each of its members to offer, on the basis of an individual contract, its own service arrangements;
((b)) the consortium agreement must give member companies the right to withdraw from the consortium without financial or other penalty such as, in particular, an obligation to cease all transport activity in the trade or trades in question, whether or not coupled with the condition that such activity may be resumed only after a certain period has elapsed. This right shall be subject to a maximum notice period of six months which may be given after an initial period of 18 months starting from the date of entry into force of the consortium agreement or the agreement to make a substantial new investment in the joint maritime service. If the date of entry into force of the agreement is earlier than the date of commencement of the service, the initial period shall not be more than 24 months starting from the date of entry into force of the consortium agreement or the date of entry into force of the agreement to make a substantial new investment in the joint maritime service.
However, in the case of a highly integrated consortium which has a net revenue pool and/or high level of investment due to the purchase or charter by its members of vessels specifically for the purpose of setting up the consortium, the maximum notice period shall be six months, which may be given after an initial period of 30 months starting from the date of entry into force of the consortium agreement or the agreement to make a substantial new investment in the joint maritime service. If the date of entry into force of the agreement is earlier than the date of commencement of the service, the initial period shall not be more than 36 months starting from the date of entry into force of the consortium agreement or the date of entry into force of the agreement to make a substantial new investment in the joint maritime service;
((c)) where a consortium operates with a joint marketing structure, each member of the consortium must be free to engage in independent marketing without penalty subject to a maximum period of notice of six months;
((d)) neither the consortium nor consortia members shall, within the common market, cause detriment to certain ports, users or carriers by applying to the canriage of the same goods and in the area covered by the agreement, rates and conditions of carriage which differ according to the country of origin or destination or port of loading or discharge, unless such rates or conditions can be economically justified.
CHAPTER IV
Article 9 

1. The obligations provided for in paragraphs 2 to of this Article shall be attached to the exemptions provided for in Article 3 and Article 13(1).
2. There shall be real and effective consultations between users or their representative organisations, on the one hand, and the consortium, on the other hand, for the purpose of seeking solutions on all important matters, other than purely operational matters of minor importance, concerning the conditions and quality of scheduled maritime transport services offered by the consortium or its members.These consultations shall take place whenever requested by any of the abovementioned parties.The consultations must take place, except in cases of force majeure, prior to the implementation of the measure forming the subject of the consultation. if, for reasons of force majeure, the members of the consortium are obliged to put a decision into effect before consultations have taken place, any consultations requested shall take place within 10 working days of the date of the request. Save in the case of such force majeure, to which reference shall be made in the notice announcing the measure, no public announcement of the measure shall be made before the consultations.The consultations shall take place in accordance with the following procedural stages:
(a) prior to the consultation, details of the subject matter of the consultation shall be notified in writing by the consortium to the other party;
(b) an exchange of views shall take place between the parties either in writing or at meetings or both in the course of which the representatives of the consortium members and of the shippers taking part shall have authority to reach a common point of view and the parties shall use their best efforts to achieve that end;
(c) where no common point of view can be reached despite the efforts of both parties, the disagreement shall be acknowledged and publicly announced. It may be brought to the Commission's attention by either party;
(d) a reasonable period for the completion of consultations may be fixed, if possible, by common agreement between the two parties. That period shall be not less than one month, save in exceptional cases or by agreement between the parties.
3. The conditions concerning the maritime transport services provided by the consortium and its members, including those relating to the quality of such services and all relevant modifications, shall be made available on request to transport users at reasonable cost and shall be available for examination without cost at the offices of the consortium members, or the consortium itself, and their agents.
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5. Any consortium claiming the benefit of this Regulation must be able, on being given a period of notice which the Commission or the Member States' competition authorities shall determine on a case-by-case basis and which shall be not less than one month, to demonstrate at the request of the Commission or the Member States' competition authorities that the conditions and obligations imposed by Articles 5 to 8 and paragraphs 2 and 3 of this Article are met. It must submit the consortium agreement in question to the Commission or the Member States' competition authorities as appropriate within that period.
Article 10 
Agreements, decisions and concerted practices between transport users or their representative organisations, on the one hand, and a consortium exempted under Article 3, on the other hand, concerning the conditions and quality of liner shipping services provided by the consortium and all general questions connected with such services in so far as they arise out of the consultations provided for in paragraph 2 of Article 9, are hereby exempted from the prohibition laid down in Article 81(1) of the Treaty.
CHAPTER V
Article 11 

1. Information acquired as a result of the application of Article 9(5) shall be used only for the purposes of this Regulation.
2. The Commission and the authorities of the Member States, their officials and other servants shall not disclose information acquired by them as a result of the application of this Regulation which is of the kind covered by the obligation of professional secrecy.
3. The provisions of paragraphs 1 and 2 shall not prevent publication of general information or studios which do not contain information relating to particular undertakings or associations of undertakings.
Article 12 

1. The Commission may withdraw the benefit of this Regulation, in accordance with Article 29 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, where it finds in a particular case that an agreement, decision by an association of undertakings or concerted practice to which Article 3 or Article 13(1) of this Regulation apply nevertheless has certain effects which are incompatible with Article 81(3) in particular where:
(a) in a given trade, competition from outside the conference within which the consortium operates or from outside a particular consortium is not effective;
(b) a consortium fails repeatedly to comply with the obligations provided for in Article 9 of this Regulation;
(c) such effects result from an arbitration award.
2. Where, in any particular case, an agreement, decision by an association of undertakings or concerted practice referred to in paragraph 1 has effects which are incompatible with Article 81(3) of the Treaty in the territory of a Member State, or in a part thereof, which has all the characteristics of a distinct geographic market, the competition authority of that Member State may withdraw the benefit of this Regulation in respect of that territory.
Article 13 

1. Article 81(1) of the Treaty shall not apply to agreements in force on 25 April 2000 which fulfil, on that date, the exemption requirements laid down by Regulation (EC) No 870/95 and to which the opposition procedure provided for by Article 7 of that Regulation was applied.
2. A notification made pursuant to Article 7 in respect of which the period of six months referred to in the second subparagraph of paragraph 1 of that Article has not expired shall lapse as from 1 May 2004.
3. The prohibition in Article 81(1) of the Treaty shall not apply to agreements, decisions and concerted practices which were in existence at the date of accession of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia and which, by reason of accession, fall within the scope of Article 81(1) if, within six months from the date of accession, they are so amended that they comply with the conditions laid down in this Regulation.
Article 14 
This Regulation shall enter into force on 26 April 2000.
It shall apply until 25 April 2010.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.