When does a change of company occur, and what consequences should be considered in the event of a cange of company during a reporting period (i.e. at any date other than 01 January)?

(SV 056)

A change of shipping company occurs anytime a change of the company assuming responsibility for MRV and EU ETS 1 obligations in respect of a given ship takes place. Such a change may be due to a change of ownership (i.e. sale and purchase of a ship)  a change in the ISM Company being mandated to assume responsibility in accordance with Implementing Regulation (EU) 2023/2599, or a transfer of responsibility from the owner to an ISM company. Special rules must be observed if the change of company takes place during a reporting period. This applies to all changes of ownership or mandates and mandate changes that take place after 1 January of a year, in particular also for mandates that take effect after January 1, 2024.

The following points must be considered in the event of a company change as described above:

1. Information and evidence of the company change, as well as the approval of the monitoring plan

According to Article 2(2) of Regulation 2023/2599, the former shipping company must inform the competent adiministering authority of the change without delay and provide the date of the company change, as well as the name and unique IMO number of the new shipping company responsible. Additionally, under Article 76(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/2917, it is required to provide evidence of the change. This evidence must indicate whether the monitoring plan had been approved by the administering authority responsible before the change of company. If the change of the shipping company involves a change of the administering authority responsible, corresponding evidence of the prior approval must be provided.

The new shipping company have to implement the necessary modifications to the monitoring plan and, without undue delay, notify or submit for assessment to the verifier, as appropriate, and then send the modified Monitoring Plan for approval to the administering authority (Article 7(2) of Regulation (EU) 2015/757).

2. Reporting obligations

The former shipping company must submit a verified partial emissions report at ship level to the administering authority, the new company and the European Commission as soon as possible after completion of the transfer, but at the latest within three months of the company change (Article 11(2) of Regulation (EU) 2015/757). For ships flying the flag of an EU member state, the report must additionally be submitted to the authorities of the respective flag state. The partial emissions report is limited to the period in which the former shipping company was responsible for the ship in question. Additionally, it must submit a verified aggregated emissions report at company level by March 31 of the following year (Article 11a(2) of Regulation (EU) 2015/757).

The new company is required to submit a verified total emissions report for the entire reporting period of the previous year (year of the change) for the relevant ship by March 31 of the following year after the change (Article 11(1) of Regulation (EU) 2015/757). For the period of the year in which the ship was under the responsibility of another company, the report is based on the partial emissions report submitted by this previous company. In addition, the new shipping company is also obliged to submit a verified aggregated emissions report at company level by 31 March of the year following the change (Art. 11a(2) of Regulation (EU) 2015/757).

3. Obligation to surrender EU-Allowances

Under Article 12(3)(c) of the Emissions Trading Directive 2003/87/EC, each shipping company must surrender allowances for the emissions of its ships during its period of responsibility.

For example, if a ship is transferred from Company A to Company B on April 1, 2025, Company A must surrender allowances for emissions from January 1 to April 1, 2025, in the year 2026. Conversely, Company B must surrender allowances for the ship's emissions from April 2 to December 31, 2025, in the year 2026.

Further information

Further information on the topic of "change of company" can be found in both the FAQ and Guidance Document No. 1 issued by the European Commission.