§40901 — Title 46 Shipping | U.S. Code

Summary

You cannot advertise, offer yourself, or act as an ocean transportation intermediary in the United States unless you have a license from the Federal Maritime Commission. The Commission must give a license to anyone it finds qualified by experience and character. A business that mainly sells goods can ship its own merchandise without that license. Someone doing intermediary work for a licensed intermediary as its disclosed agent is also exempt.

Title 46, §40901

Shipping — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)A person in the United States may not advertise, hold oneself out, or act as an ocean transportation intermediary unless the person holds an ocean transportation intermediary’s license issued by the Federal Maritime Commission. The Commission shall issue a license to a person that the Commission determines to be qualified by experience and character to act as an ocean transportation intermediary.

(b)A person whose primary business is the sale of merchandise may forward shipments of the merchandise for its own account without an ocean transportation intermediary’s license.

(c)Subsection (a) and section 40902 do not apply to a person that performs ocean transportation intermediary services on behalf of an ocean transportation intermediary for which it is a disclosed agent.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Historical and Revision Notes

Revised SectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large) 40901(a)46 App.:1718(a).Pub. L. 98–237, § 19(a), (d), Mar. 20, 1984, 98 Stat. 87, 88; Pub. L. 105–258, title I, § 116, Oct. 14, 1998, 112 Stat. 1912. 40901(b)46 App.:1718(d).

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2018—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 115–282, § 707(a), inserted “advertise, hold oneself out, or” after “may not”. Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 115–282, § 707(b), added subsec. (c).

§40901 License Requirement