{"id":78620,"date":"2026-02-06T13:31:33","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shipping.einnews.com\/article\/890031067"},"modified":"2026-02-06T13:31:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:31:33","slug":"fmc-fines-msc-millions-for-shipping-act-violations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/2026\/02\/06\/fmc-fines-msc-millions-for-shipping-act-violations\/","title":{"rendered":"FMC fines MSC millions for Shipping Act violations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Federal Maritime Commission said it has fined Mediterranean Shipping Company $22.67 million for three types of Shipping Act violations.<\/p>\n

The decision followed an enforcement proceeding<\/a> for three types of Shipping Act violations by the Swiss-based carrier. The Commission\u2019s Bureau of Enforcement, Investigations, and Compliance (BEIC), through its Offices of Investigation and Enforcement, investigated and prosecuted.<\/p>\n

The Shipping Act of 1984 requires ocean carriers to file agreements with the FMC covering  rate discussions and service contracts, and bars unfair practices such as excessive rebates or discriminatory rates.<\/p>\n

Published estimates peg privately-held MSC\u2019s revenue at $38.4 billion in 2025. <\/p>\n

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The probe alleged that MSC violated the Shipping Act over the course of several years. The first, which occurred from 2018-2020, related to MSC\u2019s billing of customs agents for demurrage and detention charges, or late fees, even though the agents were not involved in moving the cargo. The FMC affirmed an earlier decision of an Administrative Law Judge. The civil penalties for these violations totaled $65,000.<\/p>\n

The investigation also affirmed an ALJ finding that MSC failed to include in its published tariff from 2021-2023 late fees for non-operating reefers (NORs). The agency modified the initial decision to reflect knowing and willful violations starting only from the point of MSC\u2019s March 2022 statement to the Commission that it would modify its tariff. The penalties for those violations totaled $9.46 million.<\/p>\n

In the third instance BEIC alleged that MSC overcharged its customers demurrage and detention fees for use of said reefers. The Commission reversed the ALJ\u2019s determination that MSC\u2019s NORs \u201cbilling system\u201d mistake did not violate a portion of the Act, but held that overcharges occurred in about 23% of all NOR bills during the entire year of 2021. <\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, the Commission concluded that MSC\u2019s billing was not merely the result of a mistake but rather that it constituted an unreasonable practice within the meaning\u201d of the Act. It assessed a penalty of $5,000 per violation, or a total of $13.145 million.<\/p>\n

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Find more articles by Stuart Chirls here<\/strong>.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… said it has fined Mediterranean Shipping<\/span> Company $22.67 million … for three types of Shipping<\/span> Act violations. The decision … , investigated and prosecuted. The Shipping<\/span> Act of 1984 requires ocean … not involved in moving the cargo<\/span>. The FMC affirmed an …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78620\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new7.shop\/zerocostfreehost\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}