How Far Back Can You Challenge Demurrage Charges? FMC Clarifies the Rule

On September 1, 2026, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) published a rule confirming that a Demurrage & Detention (D&D) dispute filed as a Charge Complaint keeps the same two protections whichever FMC route you file it through. The carrier has to prove its D&D charge was reasonable, and no statute of limitations applies.

For US importers, exporters, forwarders and truckers, that confirms that every otherwise-covered common-carrier D&D charge assessed on or after June 16, 2022 remains within reach, including invoices written off as too old to fight. The rule cannot fix your side of the file. A complaint only works if you can still match the bill of lading (B/L) to the invoice and show what happened to the container while the clock ran.

This guide covers which charges qualify, how far back you can go, what to assemble before filing and how the three FMC routes compare. If you have not yet disputed the invoice with the carrier, start with the 30-day checks in A Practical Guide to Challenging US Demurrage and Detention Invoices.

What is an FMC charge complaint?

An FMC Charge Complaint is a submission under 46 U.S.C. 41310 disputing a charge assessed by an ocean common carrier. It must concern a carrier-assessed charge, allege a violation of 46 U.S.C. 41104(a), 41102 or both, and include the applicable B/L numbers and invoices. When a filing contains those elements, the FMC treats it as a Charge Complaint regardless of how it is labeled or which route carries it.

The procedure dates from the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA 2022), signed on June 16, 2022. D&D charges are the most common subject, but other carrier fees can be submitted as well. Any shipper, consignee, trucker or third party who paid a charge or was invoiced for it can file.

The FMC’s guidance lists what falls outside the procedure:

Charges invoiced or assessed before June 16, 2022
Charges assessed by a marine terminal operator or another non-carrier party, unless assessed on the carrier’s behalf
Charges not yet invoiced or assessed
Charges on export cargo loaded at a non-US port, or on import cargo discharged at a non-US port
Complaints about carrier actions that do not dispute an assessed charge

What the FMC’s September 2026 charge complaint rule changed

The rule (docket FMC-2026-0331, published at 91 FR 56053) corrects two misreadings and, by its own text, does not change substantive standards. The FMC’s July 14, 2022 industry advisory said a Charge Complaint filed as a formal or small claims complaint could be brought under 46 U.S.C. 41301(a). The new rule calls that statement incorrect. Some filers had also read the Interim Procedure as the only way to bring a Charge Complaint, and the rule says that is not the case.

The distinction carries weight because a complainant under 41301 typically bears the burden of proof and must file within three years to recover reparations. A formal or small claims filing that meets the 41310 elements is a Charge Complaint by operation of law, with the carrier’s burden and no limitations period attached. In a filing that mixes charge disputes with other Shipping Act claims, only the charge portions get that treatment. One trap: the FMC’s small claims web page still lists a three-year limit, but the amended 46 CFR 502.302(a) exempts charge claims from it.

Can you still dispute an old demurrage invoice?

Yes, if the carrier assessed the charge on or after June 16, 2022. Section 41310 contains no statute of limitations, and the FMC’s amended 46 CFR 502.62(a)(4)(iii) and 502.302(a) now say so in the regulations. A detention invoice from 2023 can still be the subject of a Charge Complaint in any of the three filing routes compared below.

Keep that separate from the invoice-level clocks in the FMC’s D&D billing rule at 46 CFR Part 541, in force since May 28, 2024. Under Part 541, a billing party generally must issue a D&D invoice within 30 days of the last charge incurred. An NVOCC billing its customer instead has 30 days from the issuance date of the D&D invoice it received from its billing party. The billed party has at least 30 days from the invoice date to request mitigation, refund or waiver. A Charge Complaint is filed with the regulator under the statute and has no filing clock of its own. The September rule does not say how a missed Part 541 dispute window bears on a later Charge Complaint, so get counsel’s view before relying on one to cover the other.

One court change sits in the background. The D.C. Circuit set aside §541.4, the provision limiting who could be billed, on September 23, 2025, and the FMC removed it from the Code of Federal Regulations effective December 29, 2025. The rest of Part 541, including the required invoice contents and the 30-day windows, remains in effect.

Worked scenario: a 2023 detention invoice

Take a hypothetical detention invoice issued in spring 2023 on an import container that stayed with the trucker because the carrier’s designated depot kept refusing empty return appointments.

Eligibility: the charge was assessed after June 16, 2022, so it is covered and no limitations period applies.
Burden: it is a detention charge that accrued by the day, so the carrier must establish that it was reasonable.
Filing elements: the B/L number, the invoice and an allegation that the charge violated 41102 or 41104(a) make it a Charge Complaint in any route.
Part 541: the invoice predates May 28, 2024, when the billing rule’s invoice requirements took effect.
What decides it in practice: whether anyone can still produce the refused appointments, the depot notices and the dates the container actually moved.

What evidence you need for an FMC charge complaint

The FMC asks for the carrier’s identity, a statement of how the charge violated 41104(a) or 41102, and supporting documents including invoices, bills of lading and proof of payment. Its guidance adds screen captures of denied equipment return appointments, gate closures and relevant emails. The carrier’s burden on reasonableness does not relieve you of showing the facts the dispute turns on.

Removing the deadline moves the constraint from the calendar to the file. A 2023 charge is legally reachable, but the record that makes it winnable usually sits where nobody archived it against the B/L, in carrier portal screens that have since refreshed or in email threads between the trucker and the depot. The container-by-container standard that shaped Samsung’s recoveries against ZIM and SM Line, covered in The documentation standard that cost Samsung $23M across two FMC rulings, is harder to meet when the charge is three years old and the people who handled the container have moved on.

For each container on a disputed invoice, the file should hold:

The B/L number and invoice number, matched to each other
The container number and the charge dates stated on the invoice
Discharge and availability dates, and when free time started and ended
Gate-out and empty return timestamps
Evidence of refused return or pickup appointments, and any gate closures during the charge period
Proof of payment, if the charge was paid
The carrier’s underlying invoice if you were billed through a freight forwarder (the FMC says a licensed forwarder cannot withhold it from its principal under 46 CFR 515.32(c) and (d))

For invoices issued under Part 541, several of those dates must appear on the invoice itself, so the carrier’s own document is the first thing to check against your timeline. Demurrage Billing Errors: How to Check Free Time, Gate-Out, and Availability walks through that comparison.

If your team rebuilds container timelines from carrier portals and email threads each time a detention invoice looks wrong, see how ops teams keep a milestone record for every container across carriers.

How to dispute demurrage charges with the FMC: three routes compared

You can file a Charge Complaint by email under the FMC’s Interim Procedure, as a small claims complaint for $50,000 or less, or as a formal complaint before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). The carrier’s burden on D&D reasonableness and the absence of a limitations period apply in all three. The routes differ on cost, case control, whether other claims can be added, and claim size.

	Interim Procedure	Small claims (Subpart S)	Formal complaint (Subpart E)
How you file	Email to chargecomplaints@fmc.gov	Sworn complaint in the FMC’s small claims format (46 CFR 502.304)	Private party complaint (46 CFR 502.62)
Current filing fee	None	$176	$387
Who decides	FMC staff investigate; if a violation is supported, the Commission adjudicates through an Order to Show Cause	Small Claims Officer, if both parties consent	Administrative Law Judge
Who presents the case	The FMC’s Bureau of Enforcement, Investigations, and Compliance	You	You, with counsel if you choose
Staff help completing the filing	Yes	No	No
Other Shipping Act claims in the same filing	No	Yes	Yes
Claim size limit	Not stated in the rule	$50,000 (civil penalties excluded)	Not stated in the rule
Carrier burden on D&D reasonableness	Yes	Yes	Yes
Limitations period for the charge claim	None (charges assessed on or after June 16, 2022)	None (same floor)	None (same floor)

FMC Charge Complaint routes as described in the FMC’s September 1, 2026 rule and its Interim Procedure guidance. Fees are those the rule lists as current.

Two rules govern moving between routes. A Charge Complaint cannot run under the Interim Procedure and before an ALJ or Small Claims Officer at the same time, and a claim already decided on the merits cannot be refiled. If an Interim Procedure investigation does not support a violation, the FMC’s guidance says you can still bring a small claims or formal complaint over the same charge.

Which route fits your dispute

Interim Procedure. Suited to D&D charges from one carrier where you want the FMC to investigate and prosecute. You pay no fee and are not expected to testify, but you give up control over pace and outcome. The FMC’s guidance notes that a carrier refund or waiver at any point before a decision closes the complaint.

Small claims. Suited to disputes worth $50,000 or less where you want to run the case yourself at the lower fee, or add a related Shipping Act claim. The complaint must be sworn or notarized. The carrier can object to informal handling within 25 days of service, in which case the claim moves to an ALJ under Subpart T.

Formal complaint. Suited to large multi-container exposure or disputes bundled with other Shipping Act claims, usually with counsel. On older invoices, any 41301 claim filed beside the charge portion still has to be brought within three years of accrual.

A filer cannot request civil penalties in a small claims or formal complaint. For the Charge Complaint portion, the private relief is refund or waiver of the disputed charge; any separate 41301 claims follow their own remedies.

Where the carrier’s burden of proof stops

Section 41310(b)(2) places the reasonableness burden on the carrier for demurrage and detention charges specifically, measured against the FMC’s D&D interpretive rule at 46 CFR 545.5. Whether a disputed fee counts as D&D can therefore decide how the complaint is judged.

An early Charge Complaint decision, docket CC-001, marks the line. SOFi Paper Products disputed a $1,000 congestion surcharge assessed by MSC and passed through to SOFi on a single July 2022 B/L. On September 29, 2023, the Commission found the surcharge did not depend on free time expiring or on any period of use and was assessed equally across customers, so it did not treat the charge under the D&D interpretive rule. The case was dismissed after MSC refunded the charge and the Commission found the record insufficient to establish a violation. One commissioner dissented, arguing the surcharge was not clear and definite.

On that 2023 reasoning, a flat per-container fee that does not depend on free time or any period of terminal or equipment use may fall outside the D&D burden shift. Charges tied to use of terminal space or equipment after free time are much more clearly within it.

Checklist before you file an FMC charge complaint

Confirm an ocean common carrier assessed the charge, on or after June 16, 2022
Confirm the charge relates to cargo loaded or discharged at a US port
Match every B/L number to its invoice
Decide whether each charge is time-based D&D or a flat fee
Assemble the container-level record for every box on the invoice
For invoices issued since May 28, 2024, check whether you disputed inside the Part 541 window and keep that correspondence
Choose the route: Interim Procedure, small claims ($50,000 cap) or formal complaint
Label the filing a Charge Complaint, as the FMC encourages, and cite 41104(a), 41102 or both

FAQ: FMC charge complaints

Is there a deadline to file an FMC charge complaint? No statute of limitations applies to Charge Complaints. The disputed charge must have been assessed on or after June 16, 2022.
Who has the burden of proof in an FMC demurrage dispute? In a Charge Complaint, the carrier must establish that its demurrage or detention charge was reasonable, under 46 U.S.C. 41310(b)(2). This applies under the Interim Procedure, in small claims and in formal complaints.
How much does it cost to file an FMC charge complaint? The Interim Procedure currently has no fee. The FMC’s September 2026 rule lists current filing fees of $176 for small claims and $387 for a formal complaint.
Can I file a charge complaint against a marine terminal operator? Only if the terminal assessed the charge on the carrier’s behalf. The FMC takes requests for assistance on other disputes at complaints@fmc.gov.
Did the September 2026 rule create a new right? No. The rule states it does not change substantive standards. It confirms how 46 U.S.C. 41310, in force since June 16, 2022, applies when a Charge Complaint is filed through a small claims or formal complaint.

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