§ 535.104 - Definitions.

§ 535.104 Definitions.

When used in this part:

(a) Agreement means an understanding, arrangement, or association, written or oral (including any modification, cancellation or appendix) entered into by or among ocean common carriers and/or marine terminal operators, but does not include a maritime labor agreement.

(b) Antitrust laws means the Act of July 2, 1890 (ch. 647, 26 Stat. 209), 15 U.S.C. 1, as amended; the Act of October 15, 1914 (ch. 323, 38 Stat. 730), 15 U.S.C. 12, as amended; the Federal Trade Commission Act (38 Stat. 717), 15 U.S.C. 41, as amended; sections 73 and 74 of the Act of August 27, 1894 (28 Stat. 570), 15 U.S.C. 8, 9, as amended; the Act of June 19, 1936 (ch. 592, 49 Stat. 1526), 15 U.S.C. 13, as amended; the Antitrust Civil Process Act (76 Stat. 548), 15 U.S.C. 1311, note as amended; and amendments and Acts supplementary thereto.

(c) Appendix means a document containing additional material of limited application and appended to an agreement, distinctly differentiated from the main body of the basic agreement.

(d) Assessment agreement means an agreement, whether part of a collective bargaining agreement or negotiated separately, that provides for collectively bargained fringe benefit obligations on other than a uniform man-hour basis regardless of the cargo handled or type of vessel or equipment utilized.

(e) Capacity rationalization means a concerted reduction, stabilization, withholding, or other limitation in any manner whatsoever by ocean common carriers on the size or number of vessels or available space offered collectively or individually to shippers in any trade or service.

(f) Common carrier means a person holding itself out to the general public to provide transportation by water of passengers or cargo between the United States and a foreign country for compensation that:

(1) Assumes responsibility for the transportation from the port or point of receipt to the port or point of destination; and

(2) Utilizes, for all or part of that transportation, a vessel operating on the high seas or the Great Lakes between a port in the United States and a port in a foreign country, except that the term does not include a common carrier engaged in ocean transportation by ferry boat, ocean tramp, or chemical parcel tanker, or by a vessel when primarily engaged in the carriage of perishable agricultural commodities:

(i) If the common carrier and the owner of those commodities are wholly owned, directly or indirectly, by a person primarily engaged in the marketing and distribution of those commodities; and

(ii) Only with respect to those commodities.

(g) Conference agreement means an agreement between or among two or more ocean common carriers that provides for the fixing of and adherence to uniform tariff rates, charges, practices, and conditions of service relating to the receipt, carriage, handling and/or delivery of passengers or cargo for all members. The term does not include joint service, pooling, sailing, space charter, or transshipment agreements.

(h) Consultation means a process whereby a conference and a shipper confer for the purpose of promoting the commercial resolution of disputes and/or the prevention and elimination of the occurrence of malpractices.

(i) Cooperative working agreement means an agreement that establishes exclusive, preferential, or cooperative working relationships that are subject to the Act, but that do not fall precisely within the parameters of any specifically defined agreement.

(j) Effective agreement means an agreement effective under the Act.

(k) Equal access agreement means an agreement between ocean common carriers of different nationalities, as determined by the incorporation or domicile of the carriers' operating companies, whereby such ocean common carriers associate for the purpose of gaining reciprocal access to cargo that is otherwise reserved by national decree, legislation, statute or regulation to carriage by the merchant marine of the carriers' respective nations.

(l) Independent neutral body means a disinterested third party, authorized by a conference and its members to review, examine, and investigate alleged breaches or violations of the conference agreement and/or the conference's properly promulgated tariffs, rules, or regulations by any member of the conference.

(m) Information Form means the form containing economic information that must accompany the filing of certain agreements and modifications.

(n) Interconference agreement means an agreement between conferences.

(o)

(1) Joint service agreement means an agreement between ocean common carriers operating as a joint venture whereby a separate service is established that:

(i) Holds itself out in its own distinct operating name;

(ii) Independently fixes its own rates, charges, practices, and conditions of service or chooses to participate under its operating name in another agreement that is duly authorized to determine and implement such activities;

(iii) Independently publishes its own tariff or chooses to participate under its operating name in an otherwise established tariff;

(iv) Issues its own bills of lading; and

(v) Acts generally as a single carrier.

(2) The common use of facilities in a joint service may occur, and there is no competition between members for cargo in the agreement trade; but they otherwise maintain their separate identities.

(p) Marine terminal facilities means one or more structures (and services connected therewith) comprising a terminal unit, including, but not limited to docks, berths, piers, aprons, wharves, warehouses, covered and/or open storage space, cold storage plants, grain elevators and/or bulk cargo loading and/or unloading structures, landings, and receiving stations, used for the transmission, care and convenience of cargo and/or passengers or the interchange of same between land and ocean common carriers or between two ocean common carriers. This term is not limited to waterfront or port facilities and includes so-called off-dock container freight stations at inland locations and any other facility from which inbound waterborne cargo may be tendered to the consignee or outbound cargo may be received from shippers for vessel or container loading.

(q) Marine terminal operator means a person engaged in the United States in the business of furnishing wharfage, dock, warehouse, or other terminal facilities in connection with a common carrier, or in connection with a common carrier and a water carrier subject to subchapter II of chapter 135 of title 49 U.S.C. This term does not include shippers or consignees who exclusively furnish marine terminal facilities or services in connection with tendering or receiving proprietary cargo from a common carrier or water carrier.

(r) Maritime labor agreement means a collective-bargaining agreement between an employer subject to the Act or group of such employers, and a labor organization representing employees in the maritime or stevedoring industry, or an agreement preparatory to such a collective-bargaining agreement among members of a multi-employer bargaining group, or an agreement specifically implementing provisions of such a collective-bargaining agreement or providing for the formation, financing or administration of a multi-employer bargaining group; but the term does not include an assessment agreement.

(s) Modification means any change, alteration, correction, addition, deletion, or revision of an existing effective agreement or to any appendix to such an agreement.

(t) Monitoring Report means the report containing economic information that must be filed at defined intervals with regard to certain agreements that are effective under the Act.

(u) Ocean common carrier means a common carrier that operates, for all or part of its common carrier service, a vessel on the high seas or the Great Lakes between a port in the United States and a port in a foreign country, except that the term does not include a common carrier engaged in ocean transportation by ferry boat, ocean tramp, or chemical parcel-tanker.

(v) Ocean freight forwarder means a person in the United States that dispatches shipments from the United States via common carriers and books or otherwise arranges space for those shipments on behalf of shippers; and processes the documentation or performs related activities incident to those shipments.

(w) Person means individuals, corporations, partnerships and associations existing under or authorized by the laws of the United States or of a foreign country.

(x) Pooling agreement means an agreement between ocean common carriers that provides for the division of cargo carryings, earnings, or revenue and/or losses between the members in accordance with an established formula or scheme.

(y) Port means the place at which an ocean common carrier originates or terminates (and/or transships) its actual ocean carriage of cargo or passengers as to any particular transportation movement.

(z) Rate, for purposes of this part, includes both the basic price paid by a shipper to an ocean common carrier for a specified level of transportation service for a stated quantity of a particular commodity, from origin to destination, on or after a stated effective date or within a defined time frame, and also any accessorial charges or allowances that increase or decrease the total transportation cost to the shipper.

(aa) Rate agreement means an agreement between ocean common carriers that authorizes the discussion of or agreement on, either on a binding basis under a common tariff or on a non-binding basis, any kind of rate or charge.

(bb) Sailing agreement means an agreement between ocean common carriers to provide service by establishing a schedule of ports that each carrier will serve, the frequency of each carrier's calls at those ports, and/or the size and capacity of the vessels to be deployed by the parties. The term does not include joint service agreements, or capacity rationalization agreements.

(cc) Service contract means a written contract, other than a bill of lading or a receipt, between one or more shippers and an individual ocean common carrier or an agreement between or among ocean common carriers in which the shipper or shippers makes a commitment to provide a certain volume or portion of cargo over a fixed time period, and the ocean common carrier or the agreement commits to a certain rate or rate schedule and a defined service level, such as assured space, transit time, port rotation, or similar service features. The contract may also specify provisions in the event of nonperformance on the part of any party.

(dd) Shipper means:

(1) A cargo owner;

(2) The person for whose account the ocean transportation is provided;

(3) The person to whom delivery is to be made;

(4) A shippers' association; or

(5) A non-vessel-operating common carrier (i.e., a common carrier that does not operate the vessels by which the ocean transportation is provided and is a shipper in its relationship with an ocean common carrier) that accepts responsibility for payment of all charges applicable under the tariff or service contract.

(ee) Shippers' association means a group of shippers that consolidates or distributes freight on a nonprofit basis for the members of the group in order to secure carload, truckload, or other volume rates or service contracts.

(ff) Shippers' requests and complaints means a communication from a shipper to a conference requesting a change in tariff rates, rules, regulations, or service; protesting or objecting to existing rates, rules, regulations or service; objecting to rate increases or other tariff changes; protesting allegedly erroneous service contract or tariff implementation or application, and/or requesting to enter into a service contract. Routine information requests are not included in the term.

(gg) Space charter agreement means an agreement between ocean common carriers whereby a carrier (or carriers) agrees to provide vessel space for use by another carrier (or carriers) in exchange for compensation or services. The arrangement may include arrangements for equipment interchange and receipt/delivery of cargo, but may not include capacity rationalization as defined in this subpart.

(hh) Sub-trade means the scope of ocean liner cargo carried between each U.S. port range and each foreign country within the scope of the agreement. U.S. port ranges are defined as follows:

(1) Atlantic and Gulf shall encompass ports along the eastern seaboard and the Gulf of Mexico from the northern boundary of Maine to Brownsville, Texas. It also includes all ports bordering on the Great Lakes and their connecting waterways, all ports in the State of New York on the St. Lawrence River, and all ports in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; and

(2) Pacific shall encompass all ports in the States of Alaska, Hawaii, California, Oregon, and Washington. It also includes all ports in Guam, American Samoa, Northern Marianas, Johnston Island, Midway Island, and Wake Island.

(ii) Through transportation means continuous transportation between origin and destination for which a through rate is assessed and which is offered or performed by one or more carriers, at least one of which is an ocean common carrier, between a United States point or port and a foreign point or port.

(jj) Transshipment agreement means an agreement between an ocean common carrier serving a port or point of origin and another such carrier serving a port or point of destination, whereby cargo is transferred from one carrier to another carrier at an intermediate port served by direct vessel call of both such carriers in the conduct of through transportation and the publishing carrier performs the transportation on one leg of the through transportation on its own vessel or on a vessel on which it has rights to space under a filed and effective agreement. Such an agreement does not provide for the concerted discussion, publication or otherwise fixing of rates for the account of the cargo interests, conditions of service or other tariff matters other than the tariff description of the transshipment service offered, the port of transshipment and the participation of the nonpublishing carrier. An agreement that involves the movement of cargo in a domestic offshore trade as part of a through movement of cargo via transshipment involving the foreign commerce of the United States shall be considered to be in the foreign commerce of the United States and, therefore, subject to the Act and this part.

(kk) Vessel-operating costs means any of the following expenses incurred by an ocean common carrier: salaries and wages of officers and unlicensed crew, including relief crews and others regularly employed aboard the vessel; fringe benefits; expenses associated with consumable stores, supplies and equipment; vessel fuel and incidental costs; vessel maintenance and repair expense; hull and machinery insurance costs; protection and indemnity insurance costs; costs for other marine risk insurance not properly chargeable to hull and machinery insurance or to protection and indemnity insurance accounts; and charter hire expenses.