Eurotunnel’s ‘MyFerryLink’ Service Up for Sale After Ban Upheld

PARIS/LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters) – Groupe Eurotunnel, which runs the undersea rail hyperlink between Britain and France, is placing its ferry service between the 2 international locations up on the market after a ban on it working the route was upheld by Britain’s Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).

CAT’s ruling supported a ban introduced in by Britain’s antitrust regulator and comes after a long-running probe by the nation’s competitors authorities into Eurotunnel’s transfer into the ferry market.

Under the ruling introduced on Friday, Eurotunnel now has six months to stop its MyFerryLink operations between France and Britain, with the corporate saying it might search a purchaser for the enterprise, which it mentioned was run as an impartial firm.

“Given the position of the British authorities, the future of MyFerryLink will now be determined outside the group,” Chief Executive Jacques Gounon mentioned in an announcement.

France’s Eurotunnel began to function providers on the Dover-Calais crossing in 2012 beneath the MyFerryLink model, having acquired three ferries from the now-defunct SeaFrance.

The deal added to its presence on the cross-Channel route, the place it’s operator of the Channel Tunnel, carrying Eurostar high-speed trains between Paris, Brussels and London, in addition to shuttle trains containing passenger vehicles, coaches and freight vans.

Britain’s anti-trust authorities first mentioned two years in the past that Eurotunnel’s involvement within the cross-Channel ferry route was harming competitors.

As properly as Eurotunnel, Denmark’s DFDS and P&O Ferries additionally run boats on the Dover-Calais crossing, competing in opposition to the rail hyperlink for freight and passengers.

Shares in Eurotunnel had been up 0.2 % to 11.02 euros at 1130 GMT. (Reporting by Pascale Denis, Leila Abboud and Sarah Young; Editing by Kate Holton and Mark Potter)