lass plays-a leading role

摘要

Classification societies have often found themselves fighting to protect their position and reputation against others from both within and outside the shipping industry. Incidents involving pollution such as that from the Prestige, have more than once seen the European Union and national authorities looking to class to act as the scapegoat for their own shortcomings. The EU has come down particularly hard on class societies and the International Association of Classification Societies (IACS, the leading societies' trade body), which it characterised as anti-competitive. The inves- tigation that the EU initiated after conducting dawn raids on IACS members in Europe in 2008 failed to find evidence of the uncom-petitive behaviour it was looking for, but the EU did force IACS to change its membership criteria. The pressure led to the association welcoming back the Polish Register and inviting the Croatian Register to join. The Indian Register has also been promoted from associate status to full membership.