The world’s largest shipping line has been hit with civil penalties for three different sets of violations by the US regulator.
The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) in the US assessed that MSC owes $22.67 million in civil penalties for three different types of Shipping Act violations.
The penalties come following investigations by the Commission’s Bureau of Enforcement, Investigations, and Compliance (BEIC), through its Offices of Investigation and Enforcement that also prosecuted the matter.
The largest portion of the penalties $13.1 million relates to MSC overcharging its customers demurrage and detention fees during 2021 for the use of Non-Operating Reefers (NORs).
An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has ruled that MSC’s NORs “billing system” mistake did not violate regulation 46 U.S.C. § 41102(c), however the FMC reversed the decision.
“Instead, the Commission held that the factual record indicated that the overcharging happened in about 23% of all NOR bills during the entire year of 2021. Therefore, the Commission concluded that MSC’s billing was not merely the result of a mistake but rather that it constituted an unreasonable practice within the meaning of section 41102(c),” the FMC said.
MSC was penalised $5,000 per violation – at total of $13,145,000.
The FMC also fined MSC $9.46 million for failing to include in its published tariff from 2021-2023 a statement of what such fees were for NORs. The penalty reflects knowing and wilful violations from March 2022 when MSC filed a statement to modify its tariff.
MSC was also fined $65,000 for the violation of the Shipping Act between 2018 and 2022 for the use of a “merchant clause” found in its bills of lading.
