Archives



Freight News, Sea


Eurotunnel rebuffs Competition Commission claims

[ March 15, 2013   //   ]

Eurotunnel has made a formal response to the UK Competition Commission’s provisional findings that its takeover of former SeaFrance assets to set up its MyFerryLink subsidiary would reduce competition on the Channel.

It says that it “is surprised to find that, in order to maintain competition, it is first necessary that one operator disappear from the market”, pointing out that it took part in an open and transparent tender process for the assets of the defunct company, organized by the Paris Commercial Court and in which it put forward the best offer. The acquisition has already been approved by the French authorities with certain restrictions, in particular the requirement not to market a bundle of tunnel and ferry options.

Eurotunnel also considers MyFerryLink to be complementary to Le Shuttle, for traffic which cannot be transported through the Tunnel or to offer an alternative if the tunnel is unavailable.

Eurotunnel does not envisage the activity putting the two incumbent ferry operators at risk, pointing out that rival operator DFDS has recently stated that it has increased its activity on Dover-Calais sixfold.

MyFerryLink currently represents 4% of the Dover-Continent truck market, compared to 32% for P&O and 22.4% for DFDS.

Tags: , ,