UK Competition Authority bans Eurotunnel ferry activities
This morning, the UK Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) banned Eurotunnel from operating ferries from Dover, thereby upholding its decision taken more than a year ago, DFDS said in its press release.
“Today’s final report from the CMA is good news for DFDS and our 1,300 employees providing ferry services on the English Channel. We can now start to carry out our plans for the future. For the sake of all stakeholders, we hope the decision will be implemented as swiftly as possible,” says Niels Smedegaard, CEO of DFDS.
Following today’s decision, a number of next steps remain before the case will be finally resolved. There is a four week period for lodging appeals to the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) on the issues addressed in the decision (jurisdiction and material change of circumstance). Furthermore, the CMA must issue an implementation order for the decision to become effective. This includes a four week consultation period from the issue of a draft order and a six month implementation period for closing down the banned ferry activities. The duration of the implementation process may be affected in the event of any appeals.
Given the remaining steps, we now estimate that the implementation period for closing down the ferry activities will expire in Q1 2015.
The main events of the process until today are outlined below. Between events a number of hearings with all involved parties have been held, and the involved parties’ responses to provisional findings have been examined.
22 June 2012 CMA commences investigation
29 October 2012 CMA undertakes merger inquiry
19 February 2013 CMA provisionally bans Eurotunnel ferry activities
06 June 2013 CMA bans Eurotunnel ferry activities
18 June 2013 CMA’s decision appealed by Eurotunnel/SCOP to CAT
04 December 2013 CAT remits jurisdiction decision to CC. All other appeals are quashed
21 March 2014 CMA’s provisional findings confirms jurisdiction
20 May 2014 CMA’s ban on Eurotunnel ferry activities provisionally confirmed
27 June 2014 CMA bans Eurotunnel ferry activities (Remittal)
The Competition & Markets Authority (“CMA”) was formed on 1 April 2014 by a merger of the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading.