The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) has confirmed a fine of US$950,000 against Wan Hai Lines. The Taiwanese box line has also agreed to refund charges in a detention and demurrage case which dates back to 2021.
The carrier is accused of violating 46 U.S.C. § 41102(c) by failing to establish, monitor, and implement just and fair rules and practices concerning the assessment of charges on containers when return locations with matching appointments were inaccessible.
According to the FMC, Wan Hai Lines billed a customer at least 21 times for detention charges in the spring of 2021, when the shipper either offered no return locations, the designated terminal was not accepting the containers' chassis, or appointments were unavailable for the subject containers.
The Federal Maritime Commission added that Wan Hai rejected the request to eliminate the fees claiming that it "does not control the scheduling system".
