Security Services, Inc. v. Kmart Corp., 511 U.S. 431, 16 (1994)

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446

SECURITY SERVICES, INC. v. KMART CORP.

Thomas, J., dissenting

currences or powers of attorney, tariffs are void as a matter of law." § 1312.4(d) (emphasis added).

Taking advantage of the ability to participate in other entities' tariffs, petitioner filed a tariff with the Commission that specified rates per mile for the carriage of various goods and provided that distances would be calculated using a filed tariff (often referred to as a distance guide) of the Household Goods Carriers' Bureau (HGCB). See App. 27. The Commission accepted the tariff for filing, and it became effective. At some point between the effective date of petitioner's tariff and the shipments at issue here, however, petitioner allowed its participation in the HGCB distance guide to lapse. After transporting goods for respondent under a contract that provided for a rate lower than the filed rate, petitioner sought to recover the difference between the filed rate and the contract rate in an action for undercharges. See 49 U. S. C. § 11706(a). The Third Circuit held the filed rate unenforceable because petitioner had failed to maintain its participation in the distance guide; its tariff was void under 49 CFR § 1312.4(d) (1993). See 996 F. 2d 1516, 1524 (1993). Petitioner challenges the Commission's authority to promulgate § 1312.4(d)'s void-for-nonparticipation rule.

II

We considered a similar challenge to the Commission's statutory authority in ICC v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 467 U. S. 354 (1984). At issue there was the Commission's power to reject an effective tariff that had been submitted in substantial violation of a rate-bureau agreement. In determining whether that remedy was within the Commission's authority, we asked two questions: first, whether the Act expressly authorized the agency action in question, see id., at 361-364; and second, if it did not, whether the remedy nevertheless was "direct[ly] adjunct to the Commission's explicit statutory power"—that is, whether it "further[ed] a specific statutory mandate" and was "directly and

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