The liner shipping industry and EU competition rules

The literature has always looked at co-operation in the shipping industry with some benevolence. While co-operation benefits the transport industry as it reduces operators, guarantees higher profits and regulates supply, does it also increase the consumers' surplus, or does it cause lower benefits and eventually inefficiency'? In fact, liner shipping is the sole industry that is heavily exempted from antitrust regulations, both in Europe and North America. The paper, moving from the recent decision of the EU regarding the maritime liner sector, and from the EU Commission's Consultation Paper on the review of Regulation 4056/86, aims at investigating in what ways antitrust rules can "monitor and control" the market in a proper way according to the emerging trends of integration in the maritime logistics sector. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.