The Biden administration is particularly focused on the fact that there are currently three major container alliances that control more than 80 percent of the market.

Specifically, the alliances comprise Maersk and MSC’s 2M alliance, THE Alliance composed of Hapag-Lloyd, Yang Ming and ONE as well as Ocean Alliance, which consists of Cosco, Evergreen, OOCL and CMA CGM.

Following the announcement from the US president, the European Commission stresses to Bloomberg that its competition regulators are vigilant as well and keeping a close eye on the container industry.

According to spokesperson Arianna Podesta, the commission is “monitoring the shipping industry closely” in order to identify possible measures that can help bring the market back to normal operations, she tells Bloomberg.