Two more airlines have agreed to settle allegations that they fixed the price of air cargo surcharges. Korean Air and Singapore Airlines will pay over $200 million to settle the class action lawsuit at the Eastern New York U.S. District Court. Companies that purchased air freight services from any of the defendants to the lawsuit (here) between Jan. 1, 2000, and Sept. 11, 2006, are eligible to claim a share of the settlement money, according to an alert from Sandler Travis, which represents several plaintiffs in the case. The District Court preliminarily approved the settlements on Jan. 29. Several other companies, including Lufthansa, Air France, and Japan Airlines, have already settled, according to court filings.
A New York man and his company pleaded guilty Jan. 29 in Eastern New York U.S. District Court to Lacey Act violations stemming from the mislabeling of imported piranhas. Joel Rakower and his wholly-owned company Transship Discounts will serve probation and pay a fine for labeling piranhas as a common aquarium fish on packing lists to avoid a New York City ban on the aggressive predator, and providing those false packing lists to the Fish and Wildlife Service.
Curtain wall units are “parts” that are subject to antidumping and countervailing duties on aluminum extrusions from China (A-570-967/C-570-968), said the Court of International Trade on Jan. 30 as it affirmed a Commerce Department scope ruling. Although curtain wall units are highly manufactured, and need only be fastened together to form a completed building facade, the term “part” in the scope of the AD/CVD orders on aluminum extrusions doesn’t necessarily mean something small or basic, said the court.
In an unpublished opinion that can’t be cited to argue other cases, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit rejected on Jan. 24 the amount of restitution a lower court had ordered from an importer of counterfeit DVDs. The Florida Middle U.S. District Court had ordered Dale Borders to pay $365,605.31 to the victims of his counterfeiting scheme. Borders had been on CBP’s radar since around 2006, and was estimated to have brought in over 33,000 counterfeit DVDs, despite several run-ins with the agency. At sentencing in February 2013, the government arrived at its requested restitution amount by estimating the total number of DVDs Borders had allegedly imported based on the weight of several shipments, and multiplying that number by the manufacturer suggested retail price (MSRP). On appeal, the 11th Circuit said the restitution should have instead been based on the number of DVDs that actually entered the marketplace and injured the intellectual property rights holders. Without evidence to that effect, the appeals court vacated the restitution order, but allowed Borders’ 30-month prison term to stand.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit on Jan. 28 affirmed a $2.6 million class action judgment against a Chinese drywall manufacturer. The Eastern Louisiana U.S. District Court had awarded the judgment, plus another $150,000 in interest, after finding Taishan Gypsum Co. Ltd. sold defective drywall to a distributor in Virginia that was later bought by seven Virginia families.
Seven Ohio oncologists will pay almost $2.6 million in fines and restitution for illegally importing cancer medications that had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio on Jan. 29. All seven had pleaded guilty to causing the shipment of misbranded drugs, a misdemeanor violation. They will also serve probation.
The term “bedroom” in the scope of the antidumping duty order on wooden bedroom furniture from China does not automatically exclude products intended for use outside of bedrooms from AD duties, said the Court of International Trade on Jan. 29 as it affirmed a Commerce Department scope ruling. Although Medline Industries argued its wooden headboards and footboards were intended for use in hospitals and shouldn’t be subject to AD duties, the court said the term “bedroom” doesn’t limit the order’s scope to a particular end use. Instead, the order lists products that could be considered “wooden bedroom furniture,” and wooden headboards and footboards are on that list, said CIT.
A California woman pleaded guilty on Jan. 17 to Lacey Act violations and related charges of making false statements to CBP. Patty Chen, of Oakland, admitted to bringing in wildlife products including shark fins, shark fin noodles, sea horses, dried conch, dried fish and eel maw, valued at $29,760 from Ecuador into the United States. According to the June 2013 indictment in Florida Southern U.S. District Court, she twice arrived at Miami International Airport with wildlife, but declared on CBP form 6059B Customs Declaration that she was not transporting wildlife. The case was later transferred to the Northern California U.S. District Court, where Chen pleaded guilty. Chen, 67, is scheduled to be sentenced in May.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Jan. 24 gave a green light to refunds of antidumping and countervailing duty cash deposits collected during the investigations on utility scale wind towers from China. The domestic Wind Tower Trade Coalition had appealed from the Court of International Trade, after the lower court denied an injunction preventing liquidation of wind towers from China entered between June 6, 2012, and Feb. 12, 2013. CAFC agreed with the lower court’s decision, finding the lawsuit unlikely to succeed, and refused to grant a preliminary injunction putting liquidation on hold.
A law requiring interest on customs bonds that are subject to lawsuits for recovery of duties does not apply to antidumping duties, said the Court of International Trade in a Jan. 23 decision. Although 19 USC 580 requires interest on bonds when the “recovery of duties” is at stake, antidumping duties are separate from regular duties and were not intended to be included under the law when it was added to the books in 1799.