A global operational alliance between two of the world’s largest container shipping companies will not go into effect this week because more information is needed by the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) to determine the potential competitive impacts of the arrangement.
Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd and Hapag-Lloyd filed the Gemini Cooperation Agreement at the FMC on May 31, 2024. The agreement would allow these companies to share vessels in the trades between the United States and Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Agreements become effective 45 days after filing unless the commission issues a Request for Additional Information (RFAI), as it is doing here.
The FMC uses the RFAI process to identify and achieve clarity on matters that were not addressed by the filing parties or where insufficient information was provided in the originally filed agreement. The commission has determined that the Gemini Cooperation Agreement as submitted lacks sufficient detail to allow for a complete analysis of its potential competitive impacts.
Information sought as part of an RFAI is commercially sensitive and is not publicly published. Re-consideration of the agreement will not commence until the commission has received a fully compliant response to its inquiry. The commission has 45 days from when it determines responses to the RFAI are deemed complete to review the agreement for competitive and legal concerns before it becomes effective.
A 15-day public comment period will open once public notice of the RFAI is published in the Federal Register this week. The Gemini Cooperation Agreement would have gone into effect on Monday, July 15, 2024, absent this action by the commission.
