MSC sued over (un)lawful Cuba dealings

Swiss container shipping major Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) has become the latest carrier targeted by the Blanco Rosell Siblings over “illicit” business dealings in Cuba.

On 22 September 2021, a number of plaintiffs under the collective name Blanco Rosell family filed a lawsuit against MSC in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The family had a 70-year concession agreement for Cuba’s Port of Mariel before the Cuban Revolution. Now, it tries to claim the right to receive a share of the profits made by using the port.

The complaint

Specifically, the complaint document seen by Offshore Energy says that MSC “has trafficked in the confiscated property, the claims to which are owned by plaintiffs, since at least 2016 through at least July 2021“.

Referring to bills of lading on file with the US Customs and Border Protection, the complainant said that the Geneva-based company served as the carrier for around 273 cargo shipments from various US ports, including multiple cargo shipments from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale to the Port of Mariel in Cuba.

Containers carried by MSC are loaded at US ports – including Jacksonville and Port Everglades – and then carried to ports in Panama, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic where the boxes are offloaded and loaded onto feeder ships.

They are then carried by MSC to the Port of Mariel and offloaded at Terminal de Contenedores del Mariel (TCM), which is part of the Port of Mariel within Mariel Special Economic Zone (ZEDM).

For business operations in Cuba, MSC used vessels including JSP Amihan, Vega Zeta, Anggeliki P, MSC Nadriely, MSC Marta, Monaco, Caribbean Express and others.

“MSC profits by, from and through carrying the cargo to the Port of Mariel,” members of the Blanco Rosell family stressed in the complaint.

They noted that Mediterranean Shipping Company continued to benefit from the confiscated property without the permission of the plaintiffs and without paying adequate compensation despite notice letters sent to the company.

Offshore Energy – Green Marine contacted the Swiss company for a comment on the matter, however, the carrier is yet to reply.

So far it has not issued any official statements regarding the lawsuit.

MSC joins shipping counterparts as targets of the Blanco Rosell Siblings

As informed, Mediterranean Shipping Company is the forty-second company sued under the Libertad Act.

It is also one of a few shipping companies that became entangled in lawsuits due to using Port Mariel.

MSC, which controls a fleet of around 570 vessels and covers 500 ports of call, is currently the second-largest container shipping company in the world.

Recently, French shipping company CMA CGM – the world’s third-largest container carrier — was also hit with a similar lawsuit as it was shipping cargo from several US ports to Cuba via Jamaica and operating warehouses in Cuba.

What is more, Danish shipping giant Maersk – the world’s biggest container shipping company — also faced a lawsuit over its Cuba business in February this year.

Other companies facing similar actions include Seaboard Marine, Crowley Maritime, Carnival Corporation, MSC Cruises, and Royal Caribbean Cruises. The majority of these companies continue to spend millions of US dollars on Libertad Act defenses.

Concession rights and the Helms-Burton Act

The complainants started the lawsuit against MSC under the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (the Helms-Burton Act).

The US law penalizes foreign companies for “trafficking” in property formerly owned by US citizens and confiscated by the Cuban government on or after 1 January 1959.

In 1960, Cuba nationalized the family’s property including the 70-year concession rights to execute, maintain, and exploit the docks, wharves, warehouses and storage areas in the Port of Mariel which is within the Bay of Mariel.

The government did not provide any compensation to the family.

It now remains to be seen whether the world’s top three container shipping companies — Maersk, MSC and CMA CGM — will stop trading with Cuba or continue business as usual but spend money on lengthy legal proceedings.