Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
Hong Kong-based Sterling Container Line violated U.S. shipping regulations when it refused to pay Florida-based SeaFair USA for its “document turnover” services for shipments carried under Sterling’s house bills of lading, SeaFair said in a Dec. 15 complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission. SeaFair said Sterling owes it more than $400,000 and asked the FMC to order Sterling to pay reparations and “cease and desist” from their “unlawful conduct.”
The Federal Maritime Commission has begun a probe to examine how top shipping lines are complying with new restrictions on retaliation, the commission said this week. The FMC’s Vessel-Operating Common Carrier Audit Team has asked the top 20 shipping lines calling the U.S. to provide information on how they are complying with Section 5 of the Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which prohibits carriers, marine terminals or ocean transportation intermediaries from retaliating against shippers by refusing them cargo space. The shipping lines have until mid-January to provide a response, the FMC said.
The Federal Maritime Commission’s proposed demurrage and detention billing requirements (see 2210070079) may lead to “unintended consequences” by only allowing “contracted parties to be charged with demurrage and detention fees,” the National Association of Chemical Distributors said Dec. 13 in comments to the FMC. NACD is “concerned that this requirement would in some cases force parties that are not responsible for the conduct that caused the incurrence of the demurrage and detention fees to be charged and liable for detention and demurrage fees,” NACD Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Jennifer Gibson said. “This would cause additional delays, add more time for demurrage fees to accrue unnecessarily, and increase the potential for disputes.”
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.
A Chinese freight forwarder asked the Federal Maritime Commission to dismiss an October complaint from a U.S. distributor accusing the forwarder of illegally trying to change the terms of a signed service contract and purposefully delaying 20 container shipments in order to submit higher detention and demurrage invoices (see 2210250021).
Major ocean carrier MSC violated U.S. shipping regulations because of its unreasonable demurrage practices, U.S. metal trader CCMA said. In a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission released this week, CCMA said it was assessed more than $114,000 in unfair demurrage fees by MSC, which levied the charges despite the containers being subject to a government hold and unavailable for pickup. The FMC should order MSC to pay CCMA reparations for its “unlawful conduct,” the complaint said.
U.S.-based Omni Logistics violated shipping regulations when it failed to include required information on demurrage invoices for more than 200 containers, said TPG Pressure, a U.S. supplier of construction equipment and services. In a complaint to the Federal Maritime Commission dated Nov. 29, TPG said it was forced to pay Omni more than $860,000 in unfair fees before the company released its cargo, adding that Omni also invoiced TPG an additional $362,000 for “alleged services and costs.”
The Federal Maritime Commission this week announced new interim procedures for shippers, forwarders and others filing charge complaints for alleged violations of U.S. shipping regulations. The new procedures will help the FMC “take prompt action” to adjudicate complaints and guide the commission as it works to create a permanent filing process, which will be established through a future rulemaking.
Export Compliance Daily is providing readers with the top stories from last week in case you missed them. You can find any article by searching for the title or by clicking on the hyperlinked reference number.