PRIA Logo™
Take the PRIA Score
Title 46 — ShippingRelease 119-73

§42303 Information requests

Title 46 › Subtitle Subtitle IV— - Regulation of Ocean Shipping › Part Part B— - Actions To Address Foreign Practices › Chapter CHAPTER 423— - FOREIGN SHIPPING PRACTICES › § 42303

Last updated Apr 6, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Federal Maritime Commission can order people or businesses involved in ocean shipping to give it reports, answers to questions, documents, or other information it needs. That includes carriers, shippers, intermediaries, terminal operators, and their officers or employees. The Commission can require answers under oath and set the form and deadline for replies. It can also subpoena witnesses and evidence during an investigation. The Commission may decide that any information it gets will not be made public, even if other laws might allow disclosure.

Full Legal Text

Title 46, §42303

Shipping — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)To further the purposes of section 42302(a) of this title, the Federal Maritime Commission may order any person (including a common carrier, shipper, shippers’ association, ocean transportation intermediary, or marine terminal operator, or an officer, receiver, trustee, lessee, agent or employee thereof) to file with the Commission any periodic or special report, answers to questions, documentary material, or other information the Commission considers necessary or appropriate. The Commission may require the response to any such order to be made under oath. The response shall be provided in the form and within the time specified by the Commission.
(b)In an investigation under section 42302 of this title, the Commission may subpoena witnesses and evidence.
(c)Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Commission may determine that any information submitted to it in response to a request under this section, or otherwise, shall not be disclosed to the public.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Revised SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 4230346 App.:1710a(d)Pub. L. 100–418, title X, § 10002(d), Aug. 23, 1988, 102 Stat. 1571; Pub. L. 105–258, title I, § 111(4), Oct. 14, 1998, 112 Stat. 1911. In subsection (b), the words “subpoena witnesses and evidence” are substituted for “issue subpoenas to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses and the production of records or other evidence” for consistency in the revised title and to eliminate unnecessary words. In subsection (c), the words “in its discretion” are omitted as unnecessary.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

46 U.S.C. § 42303

Title 46 — Shipping

Last Updated

Apr 6, 2026

Release point: 119-73