MyFerryLink faces new legal threat
UK's Competition Commission provisionally rules that Dover-Calais operator may be in breach of merger-control laws
MYFERRYLINK, which operates services between Calais and Dover could be forced to cease operations in May following a ruling by the UK’s Competition Commission.
The Commission on Friday provisionally ruled that MyFerryLink’s parent company Eurotunnel may have broken competition laws when it acquired three ferries that had belonged to SeaFrance before it went into administration in April 2012.
Eurotunnel launched MyFerryLink in August 2012, employing 560 former SeaFrance staff in a new company SCOP SeaFrance.
The Competition Commission concluded in its provisional ruling that Eurotunnel had effectively taken over SeaFrance.
A final judgement will be made in May.
Eurotunnel has threatened to pull its ferry services if the Commission does not reconsider. A spokesman said: “Eurotunnel cannot understand how it is possible to acquire a company six months after it has ceased to exist and nine months after the closure of all operations.”
Rival operators P&O Ferries and DFDS complained to the Office of Fair Trading when Eurotunnel launched MyFerryLink.
In an ealier decision, published in June last year, the Commission decided that, by adding ferries to its existing Channel Tunnel business, Eurotunnel would increase its cross-Channel market share to over half.
But Eurotunnel and SCOP SeaFrance launched a legal challenge, which forced the commission to re-examine whether it had the right to rule on the case.
Photo: Paul Smith
