Article considérant 346

(346) Ce type d'accord, entre conférences et indépendants, n'est d'ailleurs pas nouveau et était connu sous le nom de rate agreements, qui avaient fait l'objet de l'analyse suivante de la part du Department of Justice des États-Unis: «Conference membership in these rate agreements allows conferences to meet with all major "independant" lines to fix rates. Thus conference monopoly power can be extended, through rate agreements, to encompass most non-conference lines. (. . .) Such an agreement need not specify uniform rates: the parties may agree on rates which are different for different carriers, reflecting service variations or other factors.» (138) «Rate agreements typically provide for the right of independent action by agreement members. Where conferences are members of rate agreements, the lines normally agree upon a rate differential between conference and non-conference rates, rather than on uniform rates as is the case with respect to conferences.» (139)