FedEx follows Huawei in suing the US government

Huawei yesterday filed a litigation against the U.S. Department of Commerce due to telecommunications equipment that was never returned, let alone a decision made on it. But now, FedEx is following suit with Huawei, suing the U.S. Department of Commerce for poor Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

FedEx says that it puts an “impossible burden” on the company to monitor each, individual package for a violation. Inspecting each one is a “virtually impossible task,” the company said. Shipping 15 million packages a day, you can see that that’s a logistics nightmare.

However, Department of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Fox News that:

“The regulation states that common carriers cannot knowingly ship items in contravention of the entity list or other export control authorities. It does not require a common carrier to be a policeman or to know what’s in every package.”

It’s not sure how far the word “knowingly” goes, but seems to leave it open to interpretation, which in FedEx’s case, isn’t necessarily a good thing.

The US Department of Commerce has yet to respond to the complaint from FedEx.