Spain: CNMC sends stevedore case for CJEU review

Spanish antitrust agency CNMC submitted a preliminary ruling to the Court of Justice of the European Union, questioning whether the points of agreement reached between the stevedore unions and their employers to adjust their agreement to the new structure within the sector conform to the competition rules and labor rights of the Community. The decision ones again leaves the process, launched in 2017, frozen.

The CNMC has said that the agreement between the Anesco stevedoring companies and the stevedores’ unions “includes a series of obligations […] that go beyond the scope of collective bargaining …”, considering that such obligations could “suppose a restriction on right of separation and free competition “.

It was also argued that the recently approved regulation to reform this sector “gives back to the social agents the possibility of agreeing compulsory subrogations by stowage companies… firms that had a monopoly over the sector and that were extinguished with its reform. ”

In response, the employers of Anesco considered that the agreement is a purely labor issue, which has legal coverage and that “is not subject to European competition legislation.”, Lamenting also the uncertainty that was created with such decision, because “it harms competitiveness and legal security of the activity” in this sector, dedicated to the loading and unloading of merchandise from shipping vessels.

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