The regulation of conferences is national.
The fi rst signifi cant step toward requiring
greater competition under a conference
regime was in the US Ocean Shipping Act,
1980. The fi nal step of disallowing price
fi xing by a country was achieved by the
European Union, effective October 2008;
see IP/05/1586 and MEMO/05/480,
adopted by the European Commission
December 14, 2005.