Study On The Block Exemption System Of Consortia Under European Union Competition Law

With the containerization development of liner shipping and the popularization of multimodal transport,consortia,as the most important organizational form of liner shipping,have become an important force that cannot be ignored in the international liner shipping industry and even the whole shipping industry.However,with the rapid development,many countries,including China,do not have complete supporting legislation on consortia,especially the specific legislation on anti-monopoly exemption of consortia.Apart from the European Union,few countries and regions have enacted special legislation on consortia.Therefore,this thesis focuses on the European Union region.On the one hand,after the European Union canceled the block exemption enjoyed by the shipping conferences,there has been a continuous dispute over whether the consortia should continue to enjoy the exemption.On the other hand,European Union is one of the most important legal areas for shipping competition supervision in the world,where the supporting provisions on consortia and block exemption system of consortia are relatively professional,and full of research significance and value.On the basis of the European Union competition law,this thesis analyzes the specific contents of consortia and block exemption system based on the special regulation of European Union on consortia.In addition,this thesis studies the latest development of the block exemption system of consortia,and analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of the current consortia’s block exemption system in liner shipping market.After analyzing the legislative and practical experience of the European Union on the block exemption system of consortia,this thesis analyzes the significance of the European Union’s practice and then improves China’s consortia and its anti-monopoly exemption regulations.There are four parts in the thesis,excepting the introduction and conclusion.Chapter one is an overview of the block exemption of consortia.Firstly,the concept and characteristics of consortia are sorted.Secondly,this chapter analyzes the application of block exemption system under European Union competition law after clarifying the relationship between block exemption and individual exemption.Thirdly,this chapter studies the theoretical basis of the block exemption system of consortia.Finally,this chapter probes into the emergence and subsequent development of the block exemption system of consortia in the European Union.Chapter two analyzes the design of the European Union block exemption system of consortia.Firstly,it makes clear that the form of European Union block exemption of consortia is based on the European Union general competition rules,and takes the provisions of the regulations on European Union block exemption of consortia as the core.Secondly,this chapter analyzes and comments on the block exemption of consortia from three aspects:the object,condition and cancellation of the block exemption.Chapter three explores the latest development of the European Union’s block exemption system of consortia.At the end of 2018,the European Union launched a new investigation into the consortia block exemption regulation.The result of investigation will have a decisive impact on whether the consortia’s block exemption system is retained or not.The analysis of the European Union’s investigation can provide a more comprehensive understanding of the consortia’s block exemption system.Therefore,this chapter first discusses the reason,purpose and scope of the investigation initiated by the European Union against this regulation.Secondly,the investigation results provided by stakeholders are analyzed to explore the advantages and disadvantages of the consortia’s block exemption system in the current liner shipping market.The fourth chapter is profound consideration on perfecting the anti-monopoly exemption provisions of China’s consortia.Firstly,the development status of consortia in China is analyzed to clear the necessity to improve the relevant laws and regulations of consortia in China.Secondly,combining with China’s specific laws and regulations,the chapter puts forward and analyzes the problems in China’s anti-monopoly regulation of consortia.Finally,the European Union legislation and practice experience explored in the previous thesis is used as reference,and suggestions are put forward to improve China’s consortia and its anti-monopoly exemption provisions.