Press Release: Antitrust: Commission market tests commitments proposed by IACS concerning ship classification market

The European Commission invited comments from interested parties on commitments offered by the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS) to meet concerns that it 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 participation in IACS' technical working groups and from access to technical background documents. 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 ICAS' working groups and full access to IACS' technical resolutions and related background documents. A summary of the proposed commitments was published in the EU Official Journal (OJ C 131 of 10 June 2009) and the full non-confidential version of the proposed commitments was available on the Europa website. Interested parties can submit comments within one month from the date of publication. If the result of the market test is positive, the Commission intends to adopt a decision under Article 9(1) of Regulation 1/2003, making the commitments legally binding on IACS.