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Supreme Court Declines Hearing of Ford Tariff Engineering Case
June 30, 2020 |Penalties and Courts

The Supreme Court June 29 declined to hear Ford Motor Co.’s appeal of a case on the propriety of its tariff engineering of vans to obtain a lower rate for passenger vehicles. The high court’s order denies Ford’s petition for certiorari without any explanation, per its usual practice, leaving in place a June 2019 Federal Circuit decision. The appeals court had held that Ford vans imported with passenger seats, then stripped down right after importation to turn them into cargo vans, are classifiable as cargo vans because their use after importation is a factor in their tariff classification, even if the relevant subheadings aren’t “use” provisions (see 1906070061). Ford and several allied trade groups had said that expansion in the consideration of use in tariff classification creates uncertainty for importers by making tariff classification more unpredictable (see 1908070066).

Federal Court Vacates Importer Exemption From EPA Mercury Reporting Requirements
June 9, 2020 |Penalties and Courts

A federal appeals court on June 5 struck down an exemption from Environmental Protection Agency mercury reporting rules for importers of assembled products. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit said an exemption in EPA’s 2018 mercury reporting regulations for importers of products containing a mercury-added component runs afoul of requirements in Toxic Substances Control Act reform legislation passed in 2016 to require such reporting (see 1806270033). On the other hand, the court upheld a similar exemption for manufacturers because the mercury-added components would have already been subject to reporting, and also upheld an exemption for importers and manufacturers of large quantities of elemental mercury, because such reporting is already required under chemical data reporting rules.

DOJ Charges Chinese Manufacturer With Making, Exporting Misbranded Masks
June 8, 2020 |Penalties and Courts

The Department of Justice charged a Chinese manufacturer with making and sending to the U.S. “nearly half a million misbranded and defective masks that falsely purported to be N95 respirators,” the DOJ said in a June 5 news release. The manufacturer, King Year Packaging and Printing Co. Ltd., faces “three counts of violating the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) for causing misbranded and substandard respirators that falsely purported to meet the N95 standard to be imported,” the DOJ said. CBP seized a shipment of more than 95,000 masks at JFK Airport in New York City from China, according to the complaint.

Justice Department Signals Higher Expectations for Compliance Programs in Guidance
June 5, 2020 by Ian Cohen|Penalties and Courts

The Justice Department released an updated compliance program guidance urging industry to rely more on data, learn from past compliance penalties and improve compliance training. But the guidance, issued June 1, also introduces a “subtle” shift in how prosecutors will assess compliance programs, law firms said: More of an emphasis will be placed on determining whether programs are built to adapt to new compliance risks or whether they only rely on bare minimum measures.