FMC ISSUES VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES ON TARIFF ACCESS FEES

FMC ISSUES VOLUNTARY GUIDELINES ON TARIFF ACCESS FEES    The Federal Maritime Commission has put ocean common carriers, non-vessel ocean common carriers, conferences and tariff publishers on official notice that fees for accessing tariffs on the Internet must be reasonable.
   'In a circular letter, the industry was advised that reasonable tariff access charges should recover only costs and expenses incurred by carriers in making their tariffs accessible to the public.
   The FMC said access charges should not recover the costs and expenses associated with developing or publishing a tariff or essential term publication; providing access to federal agencies; providing access to the publishing carrier’s or conference’s employees or agents; or, developing any other function or service for possible use by a carrier’s or conference’s employees or agents.
      The FMC applied the same rationale to all subscription charges that may be assessed.
      The commission voiced hopes that the carriers, conferences, and publishers would adhere to the guidelines to avoid further FMC action.
   The action grew out of a recent FMC meeting which was called to address complaints over excessive access fees.    At the meeting, the FMC turned down a staff proposal to set specific guidelines or regulations that would have governed tariff access fees. However, the FMC indicated that if the voluntary approach fails to resolve the problem, the agency could turn to a more regulatory approach.