The Federal Maritime Commission has hit MSC Mediterranean Shipping Company with $22.67 million in civil penalties after a multi-year enforcement case found the world’s largest container carrier engaged in widespread billing violations affecting customs brokers and cargo owners. One violation centered on MSC’s practice of billing customs brokers listed only as “notify parties” for demurrage and detention charges through a merchant clause in its bills of lading. The largest single penalty, $13.145 million, followed the Commission’s reversal of the ALJ’s finding that MSC’s NOR overcharges were merely the result of a billing system error. “The Commission concluded that MSC’s billing was not merely the result of a mistake but rather that it constituted an unreasonable practice,” according to the decision. All civil penalties collected by the FMC are paid into the U.S. Treasury’s General Fund, not retained by the agency.