Editorial maritime-industry cover image: a refrigerated shipping container marked only with subtle generic inspection tags sits on a rain-darkened container ter

Ocean freight · FMC Docket No. 23-08 · Final ruling, Jan. 28, 2026.

The defense meets the record

The FMC found MSC overcharged roughly 23% of its 2021 non-operating-reefer bills—and ruled that a year-long pattern was not an accident.

Nine carriers collected roughly $15.4 billion in detention and demurrage charges from April 1, 2020 through March 31, 2025: CMA CGM, COSCO, Evergreen, Hapag-Lloyd, HMM, Maersk, MSC, ONE and Yang Ming.

Billings rose about 9× and collections 10× by Q1 2022. Both reached a second peak in Q4 2024—85% above the Q2 2020 baseline—then fell 24% and 19%, respectively, in Q1 2025. The FMC dashboard was last updated June 6, 2025; Q1 2025 remains its latest published quarter.

~23%

of all 2021 NOR bills were overcharged

Sustained across the full year

The test

Non-operating reefers (NORs) are refrigerated containers used as standard dry boxes. MSC argued that its 2021 NOR demurrage-and-detention overcharges resulted from a billing-system mistake; an administrative law judge initially accepted that defense.

The Commission reversed. A year-long pattern affecting approximately 23% of NOR bills was an unreasonable practice under 46 U.S.C. § 41102(c), not an accident. FMC Docket No. 23-08 closed Jan. 28, 2026—the only completed case in the supplied research to test this defense through a final Commission ruling.

Final penalty: $22.67M

The largest component was $13.145M for 2,629 NOR overcharges—$5,000 per instance—the category MSC called a billing-system error.

The Commission reversed the ALJ’s acceptance of that defense, helping lift the outcome above the ALJ’s original $16.0M combined recommendation. The other components involved separate conduct and periods.

Tariff non-publication chronology

2021–early 2023: Required NOR demurrage-and-detention rates remained unpublished, violating 46 U.S.C. § 40501.
March 2022: MSC told the FMC it would correct its public tariff.
About one more year: The non-publication continued after that promise.
Commission finding: Post-promise conduct was knowing and willful; the ALJ’s more lenient treatment was reversed.
Penalty: $9.46M

0.15%

$22.67M MSC civil penalty / ~$15.4B collected in D&D charges by nine carriers

One completed case versus industry-wide collections, Apr. 2020–Mar. 2025

This is a comparison of unlike scopes—not an overcharge rate or a measure of all industry misconduct. It places one carrier and one completed case against five years of collections by nine carriers.

The practical precedent is narrower: a sustained billing-error rate of approximately 23% across a full year can evidence an unreasonable practice. Chassis-choice and World Shipping Council matters remain open or differently scoped—not additional findings of D&D overcharging or rate-fixing.