FMC Increases Fine on MSC to $22.7M for Shipping Act Violations
The Federal Maritime Commission ordered MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company to pay about $22.7 million in civil penalties for violating U.S. shipping laws, up from the $16 million amount that an administrative law judge called for last year (see 2502260072).
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The commission reached the higher figure by adding a new penalty of more than $13 million while lowering an existing one by more than $6 million.
The new penalty is for overcharging demurrage and detention fees for non-operating reefer containers. While the judge decided that the 2,629 overcharges were not a "practice," the commission disagreed, saying they "were too numerous and frequent to be considered anything but a practice -- they averaged about 10 overcharges per day, every day, for more than eight months."
The commission reduced the penalty for failing to publish certain container rates, saying there was insufficient evidence to determine that some of the violations were “knowing and willful.”
MSC, a Switzerland-based ocean carrier, had no immediate comment on the commission's 65-page order. The revised penalty is still well below the $63.2 million fine that the FMC's enforcement bureau proposed in 2024 (see 2404100065).