The long-running dispute between the Onorato Group and Grimaldi over the motorways of the sea in the Mediterranean continues and, at the end of 2025, centres on the sale of five Moby ferries to Shipping Agency Services, a company controlled by MSC. The transaction is intended to help Onorato settle the outstanding balance from its acquisition of Tirrenia and was formalised on 3 December 2025 with the award of a single lot worth 229.9 million euros, comprising Moby Aki and Moby Wonder, which would have remained with Moby under a lease-back arrangement, and Athara, Janas and Moby Ale 2, which were to be transferred to GNV, also owned by MSC.
Grimaldi, however, lodged an appeal with the Lazio TAR seeking to overturn the decision issued on 22 October 2025 by the Italian Competition Authority, which underpins the vessel sale. On 8 December 2025, a single-judge panel of the administrative court ordered the suspension of that decision, citing the risk of “serious and irreparable damage” to competition. According to the judge, transferring the vessels to GNV could distort competition on the Sardinia routes and on the Naples–Palermo service, where the MSC-owned carrier competes directly with Grimaldi.
The precautionary suspension of the Competition Authority’s decision has therefore blocked the finalisation of the ferry sale contract until the closed hearing scheduled for 19 December 2025, when the TAR will examine the case in full and decide whether to uphold or lift the suspension. The proceedings pit Grimaldi Euromed and Grimaldi Group, acting as appellants seeking full annulment, against the antitrust authority as respondent, with Moby, CIN and Shipping Agency Services participating as interested parties.
