News / Shipper adds BAL to list of carriers it claims charged unfair D&D fees

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Butterfly-1, rebranded shipper Bed, Bath and Beyond (BBBY), has added extra claims of $9.5m to the millions it has already lodged with the US Federal Maritime Commission (FMC), after levelling accusations against BAL Container Line of unfair detention & demurrage (D&D) practices.

The complaint mirrors others, submitted to the FMC in the wake of the Shipping Reform Act, that claim carriers applied unfair D&D charges during the unprecedented pandemic-prompted congestion, not to free-up space and promote cargo movement, but to rake-in extra revenue.

At the height of the pandemic, container flows experienced multiple stoppages with the port of Los Angeles seeing double the usual number of ships waiting to dock, peaking in early February 2022 at 150. Butterfly-1’s latest filing covers November 2021 to September 2022.

Its filing claims “the charges assessed by BAL and paid by BBBY were assessed during periods of time in which such charges were not reasonable or fair because of circumstances outside control of BBBY and its agents and service providers”.

It adds the firm was “repeatedly advised” by its agents that congestion and equipment issues “impeded its ability to pick up and return containers”.

An employee logistics agent noted that the impact of high D&D fees forced further rescheduling and with Buttefly-1 is claiming that, at the peak of disruption, idle containers were subject to charges reaching into the “tens of thousands”. A “punitive penalty for circumstances over which [Butterfly-1] and its agents and services providers had little to no control”.

Butterfly-1’s latest filing, seeking up to $9.5m of the D&D charges paid, adds BAL to a list of carriers it has accused of unfair shipping practices conducted over the course of the pandemic.

That list includes Evergreen, MSC and Yang Ming, but the claims sought against them pale into significance contrasted with the $32m it is seeking from OOCL – a figure which could rise after an application to seek $44m is successful.