Since May 2024, demurrage and detention invoices issued in the US ocean trades have had to carry a specific list of information. The provision most people quote from that rule no longer exists: it was struck down in September 2025 and removed from the regulations that December. What survives is arguably more useful to shippers, and much less well known.
General information, not legal advice, and specific to US ocean trades. Verified against the current regulations, the Federal Register and the D.C. Circuit opinion in August 2026. Any summary of these rules written before October 2025 is unreliable.
The rule in one line
The FMC's Demurrage and Detention Billing Requirements rule was published 26 February 2024 and took effect 28 May 2024, implementing the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022. It is codified at 46 CFR Part 541 and covers invoices issued by ocean carriers, marine terminal operators and NVOCCs. The only carve-out is billing between carriers and terminals themselves, nothing billed to cargo interests is exempt.
Note the NVOCC point: a freight forwarder acting as an NVOCC carries these obligations to its own customers.
The provision that says you do not have to pay
This is the sentence worth knowing:
"Failure to include any of the required minimum information in a demurrage or detention invoice eliminates any obligation of the billed party to pay the applicable charge."
Not reduces. Eliminates. If the invoice is missing a required element, the obligation to pay it goes away. Which makes the required list worth checking every time.
What every invoice must contain
| Group | Required elements |
|---|---|
| Identifying | Bill of lading number(s); container number(s); for imports the port(s) of discharge; the basis for why you are the proper party liable for the charge |
| Timing | Invoice date; due date; allowed free time in days; free time start and end dates; container availability date (imports) or earliest return date (exports); the specific dates charged |
| Rate | Total amount due; the applicable rule the rate comes from (tariff and rule number, terminal schedule, service contract and section, or negotiated arrangement); the specific rate per day |
| Dispute | A contact for questions and requests; a digital means (URL, QR code or watermark) pointing to a public page explaining what evidence a request needs; the timeframes for requesting and resolving |
| Certifications | That the charges comply with FMC rules including the unreasonable-practices rule, and that the billing party's own performance did not cause or contribute to the charge |
That last certification is the one carriers find hardest, and the one most worth reading closely when a charge accrued during a terminal backlog or an appointment shortage.
The deadlines
- 30 calendar days to invoice you, from the date the charge was last incurred. Miss it and you are not required to pay.
- An NVOCC has 30 days from the date of the invoice it received: a different trigger, because it sits in the middle.
- Billed the wrong party? The billing party may re-issue to the right one, but only within the original 30 days from when the charge stopped accruing. A corrected invoice arriving later is a genuine defence.
- You get at least 30 calendar days from the invoice date to request mitigation, refund or waiver. That is a floor, so a carrier may allow longer but not less.
- The billing party must attempt to resolve within 30 days of receiving your request. Note the wording: attempt to resolve, which is weaker than a duty to decide.
What was struck down, and why it matters
The original rule contained a provision limiting who could be billed: the party that contracted with the carrier, or the consignee, and not multiple parties for the same charge. It is quoted constantly.
In September 2025 the D.C. Circuit vacated it as arbitrary and capricious in World Shipping Council v. FMC. The reasoning: the FMC justified the restriction on contractual privity, yet barred billing motor carriers even where they had a direct contract while allowing billing of consignees who need not have privity at all. The Commission removed the provision from the regulations on 29 December 2025, and it now reads simply "[Reserved]".
So there is currently no FMC rule specifying who may be invoiced. The consignee-billing rule and the privity limit are both gone, and as of August 2026 no replacement has been proposed. If you are relying on guidance that says a carrier cannot bill you because you did not contract with them, that guidance is out of date.
What still protects you
Two things survive and do real work:
- The invoice must still state why you are the proper party liable. That requirement was not vacated. A carrier can bill more freely, but it still has to justify billing you on the face of the invoice, and omitting it eliminates the obligation to pay.
- The unreasonable-practices rule remains in force. Separate from Part 541, the FMC's interpretive rule on unjust demurrage and detention practices, built around whether the charge actually served an incentive to move cargo, still applies, and every invoice must certify compliance with it.
The FMC complaint process also remains a live remedy, and shippers continued filing demurrage and detention complaints against major carriers through 2026.
A practical routine
- Check every invoice against the five groups above before paying. Missing elements are common.
- Check the 30-day clock from when charges stopped accruing, not from when you noticed.
- Dispute in writing within the stated window, and keep the timestamp.
- Document terminal conditions at the time: appointment unavailability, refused empty returns, gate closures. The certification about the carrier's own performance is where that evidence lands.
- Estimate exposure before it happens with the detention and demurrage calculator, and negotiate free time up front. See US drayage and chassis.
One easy error to avoid: a separate 2026 D.C. Circuit case involving the same parties concerned vessel space accommodations, not demurrage, and the carriers lost that one. Different rule, opposite outcome.
Related: freight invoice disputes and surcharges decoded.
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