ACCC Clears DP World Australia to Acquire Silk Contract Logistics

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) has concluded that DP World Australia’s takeover of Silk Contract Logistics will not result in a substantial lessening of competition.

Interestingly, the ACCC has stated that “while DP World Australia may have the ability to engage in some subtle forms of discrimination, such as proving Silk will priority access to booking slots or deprioritising access or service levels for Silk’s rivals, DP World Australia’s incentive to engage in discriminatory conduct is limited due to the impact of such conduct on terminal efficiency.”

Many in the container transport industry believe that this and other statements by the ACCC about the decision belie the reality that any preferential Terminal access could be used as a commercial tool to differentiate landside pricing and service levels beyond the Terminal gate.

Preferential terminal access treatment may provide a commercial advantage in the provision of container road transport services without impacting on Terminal efficiency but may very much impact on the ability of other road transport operators to compete on price and service levels for landside logistics operations.