Chinese appliance manufacturer Gree Electric Appliances Inc. and two of its subsidiaries pleaded guilty to failing to tell the Consumer Product Safety Commission that millions of its dehumidifiers it sold to U.S. customers were defective and could catch fire, the Department of Justice said. Resolving the first corporate criminal enforcement actions ever brought under the Consumer Product Safety Act, Gree entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, agreeing to pay a total penalty of $91 million and provide restitution for any uncompensated victims of fires caused by the dehumidifiers.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 18-24:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Oct. 11-17:
The Court of International Trade granted the Department of Justice's motion to stay a case challenging the expansion of Section 232 duties on steel and aluminum “derivatives,” in an Oct. 14 order, due in part to the defendant's likelihood of succeeding on appeal. Finding that a recent U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit opinion indicates DOJ's chances of success at the appellate court, CIT also stayed any resulting liquidation but noted that the fact pattern in the present case reads differently from that of the recent Federal Circuit case.
The Court of International Trade doesn't have jurisdiction over cases in which CBP seized goods, Judge Gary Katzmann ruled in an Oct. 7 order. Instead, jurisdiction in these instances lies exclusively with federal district courts, the judge said. Since the seizure of an import does not deem a product excluded, and thus precludes any protestable event, jurisdiction at CIT is barred for seized goods, the court found.
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 27 - Oct. 3:
Shine Shipping and Shine International (Shine), companies that arrange for the shipment of goods with vessel operating carriers, were found not to be directly liable for the shipment of counterfeit Nike footwear by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, in a Sept. 30 opinion (Nike, Inc. v. B&H Customs Services, Inc., et al., S.D.N.Y. #20-01214).
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 20-26:
The following lawsuits were filed at the Court of International Trade during the week of Sept. 13-19:
The Court of International Trade rejected an importer's bid for reconsideration of its challenge of the countervailing duty rate assessed on its tire imports. The court found for the second time that the importer lacked proper jurisdiction due to an untimely filed protest of a liquidation decision. “The lesson is both clear and stark: Don’t sit on your rights,” Judge Stephen Alexander Vaden said.