FMC Examining Shipping Lines’ Compliance With Anti-Retaliation Regs
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.
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OSRA “made it clear that it is absolutely illegal for ocean carriers to discriminate or retaliate against a shipper” for filing a complaint or challenging a fee, FMC Chair Daniel Maffei said in a statement. He said the VOCC Audit Team is “carrying this message directly to ocean carriers serving” the U.S. “This is something that everyone in a company, from the newest sales associate to the CEO, must understand,” Maffei said. “Even a simple verbal threat to a shipper from an ocean carrier employee could undermine U.S. law and will not be tolerated.”
The audit team will specifically ask questions about how companies are training employees “at all levels to act legally, and how those same employees are being made aware of the consequences for violating the law,” the FMC said. Along with written questions, the audit team “will discuss this topic in person and in deeper detail” with the 11 largest carriers participating in the next round of meetings through the VOCC Audit Program. The FMC completed the first round of its audit in April (see 2205190035 and 2204250012).