The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) and the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division have agreed to work together to take a look at the liner shipping industry.
The two announced on Monday the signing of a memorandum of understanding guiding discussions and reviews of law enforcement and regulatory matters impacting competition in the industry while providing for information and expertise exchanges.
"The [FMC] has an important enforcement role as an economic regulator of a vital industry," FMC chairman Daniel Maffei said in a statement.
"As such, we will continually assess how the agency can improve its capacity to protect the integrity of the marketplace."
The document follows on US President Joe Biden's executive order signed on Friday in which he blames consolidation in the shipping industry for rising detention and demurrage charges levied on US exporters.
The order instructs the FMC to "ensure vigorous enforcement against shippers charging American exporters exorbitant charges".
In response, liners and the World Shipping Council pushed back.
Maersk said the issue was the result of the "perfect storm" caused by Covid-19 and other factors, while Hapag-Lloyd said actions should focus on infrastructure.
The World Shipping Council said the liner industry is competitive and denied there was any problem to fix.
But attorney Neil Mooney of the Mooney Law Firm told TradeWinds that US shippers were attempting to return containers to terminals, but being turned away due to port congestion, then charged for detention and demurrage.
The FMC has jurisdiction over those fees and can issue fines through its Bureau of Enforcement.
The agency, part of the Department of Transportation, has been looking at the fees through its Fact Finding 29 investigation.
