Court of Justice fines Spain €3m

In total, it will have to pay an extra €3m, which has been calculated on the basis of €27,522 for each day’s delay.

Initially, a fine of €22m was slapped on Spain on December 11, 2014, when the Court of Justice decided that no attempt had been made to change the existing stevedoring model. This had been ruled illegal in 2011, when the Court declared that Spain was not meeting European directives on competition in this sector and ordered change to be implemented.

However, it was not until February 24, 2017 that the Spanish Parliament finally introduced new legislation that effectively ended the monopoly situation of the SAGEPs, which control all stevedoring activities in each Spanish port.

The European Commission has indicated that it is now satisfied with measures adopted by Spain.