We recently told you all about how FedEx had misdelivered a Huawei package. The latest news about that incident comes in the form of FedEx filing a lawsuit against the United States government stating that FedEx should not be required to enforce federal export bans.
FedEx is a huge US delivery company that has been making headlines because of how it mishandled a package of Huawei that was sent from the UK to the United States. President Trump added Huawei to a list of Chinese companies that have been denied trading with US companies unless they obtain a special license from the US government.
Being added to the trade blacklist means that Huawei has lost its access to the major chip makers such as Intel and Qualcomm along with the use of Google-owned Android OS. According to Huawei’s estimates, it will be losing about $30 billion in terms of revenue because of the blacklisting. US firms are also trying to get a handle on how much loss they will be facing because of losing such a big buyer.
Coming back to the lawsuit filed by FedEx, the delivery company argues that it is a transportation firm and not a law enforcement company. According to FedEx, the export ban that has been implemented by the federal government, ‘violates common carriers’ rights’ by rendering the delivery companies responsible for the shipments that might be going against the restrictions.
The export law, as per FedEx in the lawsuit, ‘essentially deputize FedEx to police the contents of the millions of packages it ships daily even though doing so is a virtually impossible task, logistically, economically, and in many cases, legally.’ A spokesperson for the US Commerce Department has told that the lawsuit has not yet been received but that it would defend the federal government’s right to impose the ban under the banner of national security.
According to FedEx, ‘The package in question was mistakenly returned to the shipper, and we apologize for this operational error. As a global company that moves 15 million shipments each day, we are committed to compliance with all rules and regulations and minimizing impact to our customers as we adjust our operations to comply with a dynamic US regulatory environment.’
Let’s see how this lawsuit goes and if FedEx emerges victorious!