Press Release: Antitrust: Commission paves way for more competition in ship classification market by making IACS’ commitments legally binding

On 14 October 2009 the European Commission adopted a decision that renders legally binding commitments offered by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) to address Commission concerns that IACS may have infringed Article 81 of the EC Treaty and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement, prohibiting restrictive business practices. The Commission's concerns related to the ship classification market, in particular that IACS might have prevented classification societies, which are not members of IACS, from joining IACS, from participating in IACS' technical working groups and from access to technical background documents. Such behaviour would have hindered the entry and development of classification societies, which were not members of IACS, in the ship classification market. To address these concerns, IACS proposed a series of commitments, including the establishment of qualitative membership criteria and guidance for their application, the possibility for non-IACS classification societies to participate in IACS' working groups and full access to IACS' technical resolutions and related background documents. The commitments were market tested by the Commission this summer. Today's decision was based on Article 9(1) of Council Regulation (EC) 1/2003 on the implementation of the EC Treaty's antitrust rules. It ended the Commission's investigation and does not conclude whether there has been or still is an infringement of the antitrust rules. However, if IACS were to break its commitments, the Commission could impose a fine of up to 10% of IACS' total turnover without having to prove any violation of the EC Treaty's and the EEA Agreement's competition rules.