President Joseph R. Biden recently signed into law the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. In a bipartisan effort, Congress passed S.3580 which will bring major changes to the ocean shipping industry which has not been impacted by federal policy changes in over 25 years. The bill provides additional authority to the Federal Maritime Commission to investigate monopolistic practices in the shipping industry and sets new rules affecting container shipping practices and the refusal to carry containers leaving U.S. ports.
OSRA 2022 marks a major overhaul of the Shipping Act of 1984, as amended (“the Shipping Act”), since 1998. These new changes include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Ensuring a competitive and efficient maritime transportation system
- New provisions for a National Shipping Exchange Registry, which would require shipping exchanges to register with the FMC, among other new requirements
- New provisions for data collection, which will require the FMC to publish new reports on regulated ocean common carriers
- New provisions for charge complaints, which allow persons to submit to the FMC complaints regarding charges assessed by a common carrier
- Expanded prohibited common carrier activities, to include unreasonable refusal of otherwise available cargo space, improperly assessed charges, and inaccurate/incomplete detention and demurrage invoicing
In addition to substantive revisions to the Shipping Act, the bill instructs the FMC to initiate new rulemakings on prohibited practices involving the assessment of detention and demurrage charges. OSRA 2022 will also result in new research, review, and reporting efforts (e.g., chassis management best practices, potential discrimination against transportation of qualified hazardous materials, etc.).