MyFerryLink was an

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

passenger and freight ferry company which began operating between

Dover Dover ( ) is a town and major ferry port in Kent, southeast England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies southeast of Canterbury and east of Maidstone. ...

and

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...

in August 2012. The MyFerryLink fleet consisted of two modern ferries – sister ships the and the – that carried passengers and freight, and one dedicated freight ship, the . It was formed following the liquidation of SeaFrance. MyFerryLink offered passengers up to sixteen sailings between Dover and Calais every day, and additional services for freight. The ships were leased to a

workers' co-operative A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

, Scop SeaFrance, that operated the company's sailings between Britain and France and employed all the on-board staff. It was a '' société coopérative et participative'', or '

History

On 6 June 2013, the UK

Competition Commission The Competition Commission was a non-departmental public body responsible for investigating mergers, markets and other enquiries related to regulated industries under competition law in the United Kingdom. It was a competition regulator under t ...

ruled that

Eurotunnel Getlink, formerly Groupe Eurotunnel, is a European public company based in Paris that manages and operates the infrastructure of the Channel Tunnel between France and the United Kingdom, operates the LeShuttle railway service, and earns reven ...

, which leased the three MyFerryLink vessels to the SCOP, could no longer operate ferry services from Dover, due to the proportion of the cross-Channel market that they held as a result. The ruling was appealed by Eurotunnel, allowing sailings operated by the company to continue as normal. On 20 May 2014, the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) that had succeeded the Competition Commission, ruled that the SCOP could no longer operate ferry services from Dover. Scop SeaFrance pointed out a potential conflict of interest: an ex accountant of

DFDS DFDS is a Danish international shipping and logistics company. The company's name is an abbreviation of Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab (literally ''The United Steamship Company''). DFDS was founded in 1866, when Carl Frederik Tietgen, C.F. Tiet ...

was now a member of UK Competition Commission, and appealed. On 15 May 2015 the

Court of Appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

overturned the CMA ruling, on the grounds of "fair competition", but the CMA then lodged an appeal to the

UK Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom (initialism: UKSC) is the final court of appeal for all civil cases in the United Kingdom and all criminal cases originating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as some limited criminal cases ...

. On 8 June 2015, Eurotunnel tired of the continuous fight, their lease of the ships to Scop SeaFrance was due to end on 1 July 2015, and they announced they would not extend it, and instead had entered a lease-buy deal for DFDS to acquire the ships ''Rodin'' and ''Berlioz''. Eurotunnel will keep operating ''Nord Pas-de-Calais'' for dangerous goods. MyFerryLink workers went on strike on 1 July 2015 in protest against expected job losses. MyFerryLink services ceased at midnight on 1/2 July. On 15 July MyFerryLink workers occupied both MS ''Rodin'' and MS ''Berlioz'' in the Port of Calais and began sabotaging the ships in protest of their impending lease-buy to DFDS. DFDS ships were also refused entry by dockers to the Port of Calais and were only able to operate their Dover/Dunkerque route, causing major congestion on both sides of the channel, with

Operation Stack Operation Stack was a procedure used by Kent Police and the Port of Dover in England to park (or "stack") lorries on the M20 motorway in Kent when services across the English Channel, such as those through the Channel Tunnel or from the ...

still in place on the UK side. DFDS staff reported that the MyFerryLink workers had reportedly destroyed safety and alarm systems on the ships and activated flotation and life-saving equipment, so as to make the ships unusable.

Facilities on board passenger services

Passengers travelling on the ''Berlioz'' and the ''Rodin'' had access to a range of onboard facilities during the 90-minute crossing between Dover and Calais. These included: *Le Relais: A self-service restaurant serving a range of meals, including dishes for children, prepared by onboard chefs. *Le Pub: A bar where drinks and snacks could be purchased during the crossing. *La Boutique: An onboard shop selling alcohol, tobacco, perfumes and other gifts. *Playzone: A play area with toys and games for children.

Former fleet

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.myferrylink.com/ Ferry companies of France Transport companies established in 2012 Transport companies disestablished in 2015 2012 establishments in France 2015 disestablishments in France