§57517 Recovery of Excess Profits

Summary

At the end of any calendar year after a charter begins, if the charterer’s cumulative net voyage profit (after paying the charter hire and operating overhead) is more than 10 percent a year of the charterer’s capital used in the vessel business, the charterer must pay the Secretary half of the excess. Those profits cannot be counted again. The Secretary must define three terms—net voyage profit (earnings), fair and reasonable overhead expenses (operating costs), and capital necessarily employed (capital used)—and every charter and bid notice must include those definitions and the formulas to calculate them.