The 1990s were a decade of conflict as to which conference activities were permitted under the European competition rules. The principal areas of conflict are joint inland price-fixing, capacity management programmes, service contracts, surcharge agreements. forwarder compensation, doctrine of severability and the abusive behaviour by members of a dominant conference, etc. The conflicts are caused by the different interpretation for the uncertain terms of Regulation 4056/86. DG4 assumes the external competition is an essential factor for the granting of the block exemption.