(1)Application for approval. Any carrier party to an agreement between or among 2 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, whether such conference, bureau, committee, or other organization be a "for-profit" or "not-for-profit" corporate entity or whether or not such conference, bureau, committee or other organization is or will be controlled by other businesses may, under such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe, apply to the Commission for approval of the agreement, and the Commission
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(1) Application for approval. Any carrier party to an agreement between or among 2 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, whether such conference, bureau, committee, or other organization be a "for-profit" or "not-for-profit" corporate entity or whether or not such conference, bureau, committee or other organization is or will be controlled by other businesses may, under such rules and regulations as the Commission may prescribe, apply to the Commission for approval of the agreement, and the Commission shall by order approve any such agreement, if approval thereof is not prohibited by subsection (3), (4), or (5) of this Section, if it finds that, by reason of furtherance of the State transportation policy declared in Section 18c-1103 of this Chapter, the relief provided in subsection (8) should apply with respect to the making and carrying out of such 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 paragraph. (2) Accounts, reporting, and internal procedures. Each conference, bureau, committee, or other organization established or continued pursuant to any agreement approved by the Commission under the provisions of 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 such accounts, records, files, and memoranda shall be subject to inspection by the Commission or its duly authorized representatives. Any conference, bureau committee, or other organization described in subsection (1) of this Section shall cause to be published notice of the final disposition of any action taken by such entity together with a concise statement of the reasons therefor. The Commission shall withhold approval of any agreement under this Section unless the agreement specifies a reasonable period of time within which proposals by parties to the agreement will be finally acted upon by the conference, bureau, committee, or other organization. (3) Matters which may be the subject of agreements approved by the Commission. The Commission shall not approve under this Section any agreement between or among carriers of different classes unless it finds that such agreement is of the character described in subsection (1) of this Section and is limited to matters relating to transportation under joint rates or over through routes. For purposes of this paragraph carriers by railroad and express companies are carriers of one class; carriers by motor vehicle are carriers of one class and carriers by water are carriers of one class. (4) Non-applicability of Section to transfers. The Commission shall not approve under this Section any agreement which it finds is an agreement with respect to a pooling, division, or other matter or transaction, to which Section 18c-4302 of this Chapter is applicable. (5) Independent action. 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 procedures. The Commission shall not find that each party has a free and unrestrained right to take independent action if the conference, bureau, committee, or other organization is granted by the agreement any right to engage in proceedings before the Commission or before any court regarding any action taken by a party to an agreement authorized by this Section, or by any other party providing or seeking authority to provide transportation services. (6) Investigation of activities. 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 such approval was granted, is not or are not in conformity with the standard, set forth in subsection (1), or whether any such terms and conditions are not necessary for purposes of conformity with such standard, and, after such investigation, the Commission shall by order terminate or modify its approval of such agreement if it finds such action necessary to insure conformity with such standard, and shall modify the terms and conditions upon which such approval was granted to the extent it finds necessary to insure conformity with such standard or to the extent to which it finds such 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. (7) Hearings and orders. No order shall be entered under this Section except after interested parties have been afforded reasonable opportunity for hearing. (8) Exemption from State antitrust laws. 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 (3), (4), or (5), hereby relieved from the operation of the antitrust laws with respect to the making of such agreement, and with respect to the carrying out of such agreement in conformity with its provisions and in conformity with the terms and conditions prescribed by the Commission. (9) Other laws not affected. 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 paragraph subsection (8) of this Section.