Transport & Shipping

The Markets and Competition Commission has taken into consideration the parties’ intention for the forthcoming approval of a new framework agreement on employment in the stevedore dockworkers’ sector to observe the requirements laid down in the legislation for liberalization of the sector and the maintenance of effective competition.

The preliminary bills amending Maritime Shipping Law 14/2014 (LNM) and the Revised State Ports and Merchant Shipping Law (TRLPEMM) are currently at the public consultation stage. However, the government has not yet forwarded the specific articles of those preliminary bills or formally released them for consultation. Although information on the areas in which they seek to make amendments has been provided to employer and employee representatives in the shipping and port industries and interested parties generally.

The transition period  under the “Withdrawal Agreement” signed between the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) in which the UK and the EU have to negotiate the terms that will govern their future dealings is set to end on December 31, 2020.

COVID-19 is particularly and adversely affecting shipping, in a similar way to events in many other industries. We examine what key legal issues need to be addressed by the shipping industry, the legislation approved on this subject in recent weeks, and whether force majeure and the rebus sic stantibus doctrine could potentially operate. 

The Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT) has published in the Federal Official Gazette (DOF) a ruling specifying the essential activities competence of the STC. This is in connection with the ruling published by the Ministry of Health on March 31 in the DOF, by means of which extraordinary actions to address the heath emergency deriving from y COVID-19 were declared and non-essential activities were suspended. 

In a judgment by Madrid Commercial Court no 13, the judge upheld the claim by a passenger who was forced to pay for hand luggage that she had not checked in. The airline company charged her when boarding the aircraft what it called a supplement for the passenger’s cabin suitcase. 

Passengers affected by the cancellation of a flight that is part of a package tour cannot claim reimbursement from the airline carrier, and instead have to claim a refund of the cost of their tickets from the organizer of their trip where they are protected by the legislation on package travel. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has so determined in a judgment delivered on July 10, 2019 (Case C-163/2018).