Samsung Electronics America is taking action against French shipping company CMA CGM before the U.S. Federal Maritime Commission (FMC). The claimed amount is substantial: at least $186 million USD.
According to the complaint, approximately $148 million is attributed to paid demurrage, detention, rail, and other ancillary charges. An additional $8.1 million relates to extra expenses for inland transportation. On top of this comes at least $30 million in interest. Whether Samsung will prevail is completely open.
The focus centers on so-called store-door transportation services. In this arrangement, the shipping company assumes not only the ocean voyage but also the transport from the U.S. port to the agreed-upon warehouse or consignee. Samsung alleges that CMA CGM failed to properly execute these inland transports in some cases yet still charged Samsung for the resulting costs.
The lawsuit names more than 121,000 individual charges. These include over 26,000 demurrage cases and more than 94,000 detention cases. Demurrage, in simple terms, is terminal storage fees. Detention charges accrue when a container is retained outside the terminal too long and returned late.
One example illustrates how quickly costs can escalate: A container was booked from Busan to The Colony, Texas and unloaded in Long Beach in August 2021. According to Samsung, the door-to-door transport was subsequently converted to a container yard transport. In the end, $162,799 in rail storage charges appeared on the invoice.
To date, these are Samsung's allegations. CMA CGM must still formally respond. The first judicial decision is scheduled for no later than September 2027, with the final FMC decision expected in March 2028.