The European Commission (EC) decided on 10 October 2023 that it would not extend the CBER, citing evidence collected from stakeholders that pointed towards “the low or limited effectiveness and efficiency of the CBER throughout the 2020-2023 period.”

In a statement issued at the time, the EC said: “Given the small number and profile of consortia falling within the scope of the CBER, the CBER brings limited compliance cost savings to carriers and plays a secondary role in carriers’ decision to cooperate.”

In the UK, the country’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had been conducting its own investigation and analysis of the liner shipping market and in November also concluded that “conditions did not warrant the continued existence of a CBER for UK maritime movements.”

The CMA then sought additional information from other parties, an exercise that BIFA participated in. The trade association’s views and those of its members have long been that practices undertaken by container shipping lines, as well as the easements and exemptions provided to them, have distorted operations in the free market and to the detriment of international trade, businesses and consumers.

The authority has now announced that it will stick with its original decision and make no recommendations to Kemi Badenoch, the UK Government’s Secretary of State for Business & Trade. The CMA’s conclusion to its investigation was that “self-assessment is the best and most effective way for shipping lines to cooperate.”

BIFA has welcomed the decision. The association’s director general Steve Parker said: “This decision confirms the provisional recommendation made by the CMA in November 2023 and is a sensible conclusion to the ongoing container market public consultation that has been conducted by the CMA since the start of last year.

“Whilst this regulatory change, if implemented, will not end shipping line consortia and alliances, it will allow greater and ongoing scrutiny of such arrangements; and ensure that the lines will be subject fully to competition law. That will be welcomed by BIFA and its members and we call on the Secretary of State for Business and Trade to uphold the Agency’s decision.”

Parker stressed that BIFA, and its members are not anti-shipping line. He stressed: “Our members know that shipping lines are essential parties in the global supply chain and hope that this decision will create a suitable balance between shipping lines as carriers, and its members as customers; leading to the creation of a long term, stable and successful deep sea container market that is in the best interest of all who are engaged in international trade.”

Nonetheless, some uncertainty is inevitable give the considerable volatility that exists in the market at the current time, due to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza and the attacks on ships in the Red Sea. There are also the planned operational and organisational changes to the current alliance set-ups that will see 2M Alliance terminated and THE Alliance radically changed as MSC goes alone and Maersk and Hapag-Loyd forge a new partnership (Gemini Cooperation) in early 2025.