The Fair Trade Commission said it has obtained the corporate merger application for P3 Network from Danish shipping company Maersk Line and is evaluating whether the shipping alliance could hamper the competition of Korean companies.

P3 is a joint corporation being sought by the world's largest ocean carriers – Maersk Line, Mediterranean Shipping Company (Switzerland) and CMA CGM (France) – with a view to cooperating on major international routes for container shipping services, including Asia-Europe, the Atlantic and the Pacific.

The launch of P3 Network could shake the container shipping market as the services offered by the three companies add up to a 37 percent market share.

Competition authorities and regulators in the US, EU, Germany, China and Poland are also conducting an evaluation of the alliance.