October-December 2009

On 14 October 2009, the European Commission adopted a decision making commitments offered by IACS binding for a period of 5 years pursuant to Article 9 of Regulation 1/2003. The European Commission's decision brought proceedings against IACS to an end without concluding whether there had been or still was an infringement of the antitrust rules. The European Commission had started the investigation with unannounced inspections at the premises of the association and of some classification societies on 29–30 January 2008. The European Commission market tested the commitments for one month from 10 June 2009 and subsequently adopted them, making them binding on IACS. IACS offered commitments to address the preliminary concerns expressed by the European Commission that it may have infringed Article 81 EC and Article 53 of the EEA Agreement. In particular, the European Commission expressed concerns regarding the criteria and...