456
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
the legal rate, as between carrier and shipper.") (emphasis added).
Under our filed rate doctrine decisions, even defective filings, including those containing substantively unlawful rates, see Davis v. Portland Seed Co., 264 U. S. 403, 425 (1924), normally control. See ICC v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 467 U. S. 354, 363-364, n. 7 (1984); Berwind-White Coal Mining Co. v. Chicago & Erie R. Co., 235 U. S. 371, 375 (1914). A shipper's remedy, when a filed rate imposes an unlawful charge, ordinarily is confined to actual damages. See American Trucking, supra, at 364, n. 7 (citing Boren-Stewart Co. v. Atchison, T. & S. F. R. Co., 196 I. C. C. 120 (1933), and Acme Peat Products, Ltd. v. Akron, C. & Y. R. Co., 277 I. C. C. 641, 644 (1950)). The ICC may not reject a tariff once accepted and in effect, American Trucking, supra, at 360-364, unless two conditions are satisfied: First, the Commission's action must "further a specific statutory mandate"; second, the action "must be directly and closely tied to that mandate," 467 U. S., at 367.1
In the 1980's, as the Court recognizes, ante, at 438, many carriers responded to competitive pressures by ignoring the tariffs they had filed with the ICC and negotiating with shippers rates for carriage lower than the filed rates. When carrier bankruptcies ensued, trustees asserted claims against
1 American Trucking itself is illustrative. There, the Court upheld the ICC's authority to reject effective tariffs to deter violations of "rate bureau agreements." Under such agreements, carriers may submit collective rates to the Commission without risking antitrust liability, provided the agreements conform to specific guidelines set forth in 49 U. S. C. § 10706(b)(3). Reasoning that Congress intended the Commission to "play a key role in holding carriers to the § 10706(b)(3) guidelines," and that the nullification in question "is directly aimed at ensuring that motor carriers comply with the [statutory] guidelines," the Court held the ICC's action permissible. 467 U. S., at 369, 370. In so holding, the Court stressed that its "concern over the harshness" of the remedy "is lessened by the signifi-cant steps the Commission has taken to ensure that the penalty will not be imposed unfairly." Id., at 370.
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