§271-35 Agreements between carriers. (a) For purposes of this section the term "antitrust laws" means any law of the State previously enacted or hereafter enacted pertaining to unlawful restraints of trade and monopolies.

(b) Any carrier party to an agreement between or among two or more carriers relating to rates, fares, classifications, divisions, allowances, or charges (including charges between carriers and compensation paid or received for the use of facilities and equipment), or rules and regulations pertaining thereto, or procedures for the joint consideration, initiation, or establishment thereof, may, under such rules and regulations as the public utilities commission may prescribe, apply to the commission for approval of the agreement, and the commission shall by order approve any agreement (if approval thereof is not prohibited by subsections (d) or (e)) if it finds that, by reason of furtherance of the transportation policy declared in this chapter, the relief provided in subsection (h) should apply with respect to the making and carrying out of the agreement; otherwise the application shall be denied. The approval of the commission shall be granted only upon such terms and conditions as the commission may prescribe as necessary to enable it to grant its approval in accordance with the standard above set forth in this subsection.

(c) Each conference, bureau, committee, or other organization established or continued pursuant to any agreement approved by the commission under this section shall maintain such accounts, records, files, and memoranda and shall submit to the commission such reports, as may be prescribed by the commission, and all the accounts, records, files, and memoranda shall be subject to inspection by the commission or its duly authorized representatives.

(d) The commission shall not approve under this section any agreement between or among carriers of different classes unless it finds that the agreement is of the character described in subsection (b) of this section and is limited to matters relating to transportation under joint rates or over through routes; and for purposes of this subsection carriers by aircraft are carriers of one class; carriers by motor vehicles are carriers of one class; carriers by water are carriers of one class.

(e) The commission shall not approve under this section any agreement which establishes a procedure for the determination of any matter through joint consideration unless it finds that under the agreement there is accorded to each party the free and unrestrained right to take independent action either before or after any determination arrived at through such procedure.

(f) The commission is authorized, upon complaint or upon its own initiative without complaint, to investigate and determine whether any agreement previously approved by it under this section, or terms and conditions upon which the approval was granted, is not or are not in conformity with the standard set forth in subsection (b), or whether any such terms and conditions are not necessary for purposes of conformity with the standard, and, after the investigation, the commission shall by order terminate or modify its approval of the agreement if it finds the action necessary to insure conformity with the standard, and shall modify the terms and conditions upon which the approval was granted to the extent it finds necessary to insure conformity with the standard or to the extent to which it finds the terms and conditions not necessary to insure such conformity. The effective date of any order terminating or modifying approval, or modifying terms and conditions, shall be postponed for such period as the commission determines to be reasonably necessary to avoid undue hardship.

(g) No order shall be entered under this section except after interested parties have been afforded reasonable opportunity for hearing.

(h) Parties to any agreement approved by the commission under this section and other persons are, if the approval of such agreement is not prohibited by subsection (d) or (e), relieved from the operation of the antitrust laws with respect to the making of such agreement, and with respect to the carrying out of the agreement in conformity with its provisions and in conformity with the terms and conditions prescribed by the commission.

(i) Any action of the commission under this section in approving an agreement or in denying an application for such approval, or in terminating or modifying its approval of an agreement, or in prescribing the terms and conditions upon which its approval is to be granted, or in modifying such terms and conditions, shall be construed as having effect solely with reference to the applicability of the relief provisions of subsection (h). [L 1961, c 121, pt of §2; am L 1963, c 193, §35; Supp, §106C-33; HRS §271-35]

Case Notes

Hawaii household goods movers no longer exempt from Interstate Commerce Commission regulation. 395 F. Supp. 261.