MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — The state of Michigan has gone to court to try to break up the company that controls every passenger ferry to Mackinac Island, naming the Hoffmann Family of Companies in an antitrust complaint filed Thursday.
Attorney General Dana Nessel brought the case under the Michigan Antitrust Reform Act, listing claims of monopolization, unjust enrichment and an agreement in restraint of trade. Hoffmann Marine and Hoffmann Shepler’s Ferry are among the companies named as defendants.
The island bans cars, so nearly everyone who visits, works or lives there depends on a commercial ferry unless they fly in or bring their own boat. For years three separate operators competed for those riders: Shepler’s, Star Line and Arnold Transit. Star Line absorbed Arnold in 2016 and rebranded it the Mackinac Island Ferry Company. Hoffmann took a controlling stake in Shepler’s in 2022 and then bought the Mackinac Island Ferry Company in 2024, leaving one owner over the boats, the docks and the parking lots.
Nessel argues the company used that position to push prices up, cut service and threaten to halt ferry runs altogether if local officials did not sign longer agreements on its terms. The state also says Hoffmann started charging for parking that used to be free.
The fight over fares has been building all year. Senate Bill 304, which Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed in June, gave the city of Mackinac Island power to regulate every part of ferry service instead of only the base fare. That followed the city’s refusal of a $2 fare increase; Hoffmann then raised add-on charges for parking, baggage and bicycles, lifting the full cost of a trip from $34 to $51. Island voters approved a charter amendment on Nov. 3 that gives local officials the final word on ticket and parking rates.
In the court filing, the state asks a judge to order Hoffmann to sell off its ferry lines so competitors can return. Hoffmann Marine has said it is disappointed by the suit, maintains it has not broken state or federal antitrust law, and notes a federal court has twice rejected the city’s own antitrust claims against it.
Nessel, who leaves office soon because of term limits, said Attorney General-elect Eli Savit knows about the case and backs it. She is also urging Michigan to require advance notice to state agencies before mergers and acquisitions, as many other states do, and says the attorney general’s office has too few resources devoted to antitrust work.
From the HERE City State Desk.
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