The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has announced that the Gemini Cooperation Agreement will not go into effect next week.
According to FMC, this is due to a lack of information regarding the arrangement’s possible competitive consequences.
Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd and Hapag-Lloyd USA, LLC filed the Gemini Cooperation Agreement at the Commission on 31 May 2024.
The agreement would allow these corporations to share vessels on trade routes between the US and Asia, the Middle East, and Europe.
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Agreements take effect 45 days after filing, unless the Commission makes a Request for Additional Information (RFAI), as it is doing here.
The Commission employs the RFAI procedure to identify and clarify issues that were not addressed by the filing parties or where inadequate information was supplied in the initially filed agreement.
The Commission has found that the Gemini Cooperation Agreement, as presented, lacks sufficient information to allow for a thorough study of its potential competition effects.
The information requested as part of an RFAI is commercially sensitive and not publicly available.
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Reconsideration of the agreement will not begin until the Commission receives a fully compliant answer to its inquiry.
The Commission has 45 days from the day it deems that replies to the RFAI are complete to assess the agreement for competitive and legal problems before it takes effect.
A 15-day public comment process will begin after the RFAI is published in the Federal Register next week.
If the Commission had not taken its decision, the Gemini Cooperation Agreement would have taken force on 15 July 2024.
