Cite as: 511 U. S. 431 (1994)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
shippers for the difference between the filed rates and the negotiated rates. Reacting to these claims, the Commission refused to enforce filed rates when it appeared inequitable to exact from the shipper more than the negotiated lower price. In Maislin Industries, U. S., Inc. v. Primary Steel, Inc., 497 U. S. 116 (1990), this Court held the ICC's nonenforcement policy inconsistent with the Act, explaining:
"[T]he filed rate doctrine . . . forbids as discriminatory the secret negotiation and collection of rates lower than the filed rate. By refusing to order collection of the filed rate solely because the parties had agreed to a lower rate, the ICC has permitted the very price discrimination that the Act by its terms seeks to prevent." Id., at 130 (citation omitted).
Invoking the filed rate doctrine and case law elaborating on it, petitioner Security Services seeks to recover under-charges for shipments its predecessor, Riss International, made between November 1986 and December 1989. During the period for which recovery is sought, the ICC followed the policy later declared unlawful in Maislin, i. e., the Commission routinely refused to order collection of the filed rate where the parties had agreed upon a lower rate. Newly professing strict adherence to the filed rate doctrine, the ICC now contends it may nonetheless void a carrier's tariff, though valid when filed, and uphold, in place of the filed rate, "secret" contract rates of the kind held invalid in Maislin. The ICC asserts it may do so for this reason: The carrier allowed a power of attorney to the Household Goods Carriers' Bureau (HGCB) to lapse and neglected to pay a nominal annual fee to maintain its membership participation in HGCB's Mileage Guide.2 The Court upholds the ICC's position, describing the carrier's tariff as "lack[ing] an essential element," ante, at 440; "a carrier employing distance rates without purporting to be bound by stated distances," the
2 The fee was approximately $83. Tr. of Oral Arg. 10.
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