According to www.freightwaves.com, Samsung Electronics America has filed a complaint with the Federal Maritime Commission seeking at least $186 million from French ocean carrier CMA CGM over alleged unlawful container charges and unfulfilled inland transportation commitments.
Core dispute: store-door shipment failures
The complaint centers on “store-door” shipments, under which CMA CGM agreed to move Samsung’s containers from overseas origins through U.S. ports to designated inland destinations. Samsung states that CMA CGM began handling these shipments under store-door bills of lading in January 2020. Beginning around mid-2020, Samsung alleges the carrier repeatedly failed to remove containers promptly from marine and intermodal terminals and deliver them to their final inland locations — delays Samsung says were outside its control.
Samsung reports it paid more than 121,000 demurrage, detention, and associated charges — including over 26,000 individual demurrage charges and more than 94,000 detention-type charges. The company attributes these costs to CMA CGM’s failure to coordinate timely inland transport, forcing Samsung to assume parts of the delivery process it had not contractually agreed to manage.
One cited incident involved a container shipped from Busan, South Korea, through the Port of Long Beach to The Colony, Texas, in 2021. After CMA CGM unilaterally converted the shipment from store-door to container-yard service, Samsung alleges the container accumulated approximately $162,800 in rail storage charges — a cost it contends was directly caused by the carrier’s unauthorized service change.
Reparations and legal claims
Samsung’s requested reparations include approximately $148 million in disputed demurrage, detention, rail storage, and related charges; at least $8.1 million in additional expenses incurred to carry out inland transportation obligations and mitigate disruptions; and approximately $30 million in prejudgment interest. The company also seeks legal fees and other compensation, meaning its total demand could exceed $186 million.
Samsung contends CMA CGM violated Section 41102(c) of the Shipping Act, which requires common carriers to maintain just and reasonable practices for receiving, handling, storing, and delivering cargo. It asks the Federal Maritime Commission to award reparations and order CMA CGM to cease the allegedly unlawful practices — including the use of cargo and finance holds to compel payment of disputed invoices and the unilateral conversion of store-door shipments to container-yard arrangements.
CMA CGM denies liability
CMA CGM disputes all allegations and has asked the Federal Maritime Commission to dismiss the complaint. In an email to FreightWaves, a company representative stated:
“CMA CGM disputes Samsung Electronics America’s allegations of Shipping Act violations and has filed its response with the Federal Maritime Commission, requesting dismissal of the complaint.”
The carrier attributes the dispute to “exceptional operating conditions” during the Covid-19 pandemic and maintains it complied with both contractual obligations and applicable regulations. As the proceedings remain ongoing, CMA CGM declined to comment further on the substance of the case. This article was updated on Oct. 8 to include CMA CGM’s official response.
Source: FreightWaves
Compiled from international media by the SCI.AI editorial team.
