Freight News, Sea

Another twist to MyFerryLink saga

[ May 15, 2015   //   Chris ]

The Court of Appeal has upheld an appeal by a French worker’s cooperative that Eurotunnel’s acquisition of MyFerryLink should not be treated as a merger under UK competition law. The SCOP (Société Coopérative de Production de SeaFrance ), the workers’ collective that has been operating the MyFerryLink service on behalf of its owner Eurotunnel, had argued that when, in 2012, the companies acquired the ferries and assets of the former SeaFrance operation this should not be treated as a merger – an argument that has now been upheld by the Court of Appeal.
In June 2013 the then Competition Commission (the predecessor to the Competition and Markets Authority) decided that a merger had occurred and that Eurotunnel was ordered to dispose of MyFerryLink.
That decision was challenged before the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which upheld the finding on competition, but said it would reconsider the question of whether the arrangements in this case met the statutory definition of a merger. The CMA subsequently decided that it considered they did meet the statutory definition of a merger and that decision was then upheld by the Competition Appeal Tribunal, but has now been overturned by the Court of Appeal’s judgement.

Tags: eurotunnel, Myferrylink