US antitrust policy and liner conferences in the age of intermodalism

This article examines the uncertainties concerning the antiturst immunity for collective participation by liner conferences in intermodal transporation. Among them are the FMC's jurisdiction under the Shipping Act to authorize such collective actions, the legality of intermodal dual-rate contracts and the stringency by lsquo;public-interestrsquo; justification. Administrative and judicial decisions proved ineffective in resolving the issues which legislative actions had, over a decade, failed to deal with. These uncertainties could soon be ended with passage of the maritime antiturst polity emerging out of this Congress. It is, however, still uncertain as to whether, and to what extent, the viabilty of the conference system would be threatened by the continued growth of intermodalism and vice versa. Congressional intent to safeguard the continued growth of intermodalism and the development of other future innovations means that these two issues are of more than just academic interests. Yet, they have not been adequately addressed in the policy studies currently available.